Frog Mask
by blackmamuth
Summary: The night that the Kyuubi attacked konoha, not only the Kyuubi was sealed in Naruto. What if there was another tenant in Naruto's body?
1. Prologue

**_IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ: _**It reached me, that I somewhat used a name for a main character that was the same as another history, really, It was a mistake, somehow, In my mind, the fourth name was always called that.I truthfully Tought that it was the name that was written in Jiraya's scroll during the gamabunta summoning training. I guess It's far from it.

Adding the fact that my fic starts in the same manner that bloodlines, from the SOCpuppet, It could lead to unconfortable misunderstandings. I deeply apologize for that, and deeply encourage someone to go read the wonderful Bloodlines from the SOCpuppett.

Also, I want to say that I changed the old name that the fourt had in my history from Kazama Arashi, to Kuchiba kiiro. In my limited understanding of japanese those names are two diferend words from yellow. Kiiro is basically yellow in japanese, and a Kuchiba is supposed to be one of those yellow leaves that common in Autumm.

I deeply apologize for it Again.

_**Prologue:**_

_**The Night kyuubi attacked**_

The fourth hokage of Konoha looked at the window of the Hokage tower.in the east forest he could see the red chakra between the trees, and the metallic sounds that revealed the fighting. The giant mass of orange chakra of the kyuubi was impossible to miss. kyuubi was approaching, nearer and nearer to konoha each second that passed.

he looked back at the blue eyed tiny baby, his son, his happinness. He had only minutes of life, and he was sleeping peacefully. a seal half drawn in his belly. He supressed a shiver. If the plan was succeful, he would die, sacrificing his soul to the kyuubi, and the kyuubi would be sealed in little kyo, in the worst case scenario, the jutsu would fail, and he and kyo would die, with the rest of Konoha with them.

the image of a defenseless baby in front of the kyuubi Scared him to no end.

He concentrated again and continued painting little kyo's belly

The little boy who, if all went right, would find himself fatherless and with a Giant demon fox sealed in his belly. It was good that he wouldn't survive today... Even if he didn't die from the process, the mother would likely kill him.

Not that he wanted to die... It was his last option, obviously, when it was clear than evacuating the village was not possible... The kyuubi was blocking the only escape route.

he briefly toyed with fleeing the village with little kyo, he was the yellow flash, the fastest ninja in konoha, He would be most likely able to escape... when they got an idea of what happened, he would be long gone...

he shook his head. he would never forgive himself, his wife would never forgive him, and it was his wish and duty to protect the village!

And he had only been hokage for one week!

a week before life was perfect, he was the be hokage,he was going to have a son... And the damm kyuubi appeared! there was someone up there that hated him!

He had told the plan to the village elders, that he was going to seal the kyuubi in a baby. that was the only way. He hadn't told them that most likely his soul would be sucked together with the kyuubi in the sealing process. Also he hadn't told them what baby he was planning on using, the village council were too busy trying to change his mind, to ask about the hypotetical container of the kyuubi.

If he was correct, sealing him anywhere else, would kill the container... It had to be a baby, because their chakra system was not developed,it could adapt to the added chakra of the kyuubi... And he had designed the seal in a way that the container would be able to draw chakra from the sealed. It was wrong for him to say, but it was bloody brilliant!

The Fourth hokage finally completed the seal drawing, picked the young kyo and jumped from the window, while calling Gamabunta in Mid-air. He steeled his resolve. He had one demon fox to seal.

In huge gamabunta leaps, he approached the battlefield, which now was to damn near konoha hospital, where all the injured and dead were kept... where his fellow ninjas were holding the kyuubi.

The fourth Hokage entered the battlefield,with his white robes with red flames flying in the night's wind, his spiked yellow hair also flying in the wind, in top of the giant toad Gamabunta.The only thing that was odd was a bundle tied in the back of the hokage.

the image of konoha hero accomplished the impossible. The few shinobi's that were still alive, defending the hospital ruins, got hope back in their hearts, and a strong feeling of hope and resolve filled their hearts.

It was somewhat anticlimatic,The fourth hokage, started to make hand seals,(he'd done that so fast, that no one could distingish them) and a huge espectral figure appeared floating roughly three meters in the back of the hokage. The god of death, who in a fast movement, passed his ghostly arm through the bundle in his back and the Hokage himself.

The yellow flash performed his trademark jutsu, and in a instant was in front of the fox, strangely enough, Gamabunta was also transported with him. And then the hokage made a handseal. The god of death moved his arm further through the hokage and the bundle, and grabbed the kyuubi.

the kyubii moved his tails, tryiing to attack the tiny blonde, who was trying to grab him, and then, she felt a sensation in his chest, and suddenly became paralysed. her tails stopped mere centimeters away from the hokage's face.

The hokage closed his eyes. a sudden light was seen by everyone present. The god of death was grabbing the soul of the kyuubi, and dragging it towards him.

in an amazing moment, the kyuubi's chakra seemed to become smaller, and smaller. she was being sucked to the hokage's body slowly. The present shinobi's had to cover their ears because of the demonic scream that came from the kyuubi.

It took only 30 seconds, and it was over. the kyuubi was nowhere in sight.

the Konoha ninja started to cheer. scream and celebrate. the kyuubi was nowhere to be seen, and fourth hokage was victorious.

and then they fell silent in a second, when their hero's body fell lifeless in the head of gamabunta.

the silence only broke a few minutes after,and it wasn't broken by a shinobi. It was broken by a crying baby.

It was hours after the attack, when one puzzled and intrigued Sarutobi, now resuming his duties as sandaime hokage after his successor sacrifice, named the unknown cryiing infant Uzumaki Naruto.

_**Chuunin Exams, Second test, 67 Hours Remaining**_

"I will give you our scroll, if you let us go" Sasuke said to the White-faced creepy guy.

Was Sasuke crazy?. How was possible that he would give the scroll to the enemy?

It was impossible, unforgivable, sickening, Totally wrong! That was not Sasuke! that one was a coward!

And sasuke throwed the scroll to that white-faced guy. was he dreaming? He wouldn't allow that. Naruto jumped, and caught the scroll in middair.

And then Naruto punched Sasuke. It was hadly possible that the white-faced creepy guy would let them get out even if they gave the scroll.

Naruto hoped that the punch made him react. Fighting someone who had Sasuke scared silly was something he dreaded and awaited eagerly.

Sasuke was scared, So he had to finish the Job himself. He charged to the enemy...

And the enemy summoned a Giant snake and commanded it to eat him!

He felt angrier, angrier than ever. And his whisker marks widened, his eyes changed color from his ble sky blue to light red. He felt the fox chakra engulf his body, New smells entered his nose, and he could hear the snake moving clearer than ever.

He was falling to the ground, the snake following him shortly. And then the Snake changed his trajectory, Going to Sasuke!

A Sasuke that hadn't moved sinse he charged to the White faced creepy guy!

He made a quick leap, and put himself in front of the Snake, stabbing his Nose with his Kunai, and pushing with all his kyuubi echanhed forces againist it.

He succeded, the Snake didn't Reach Sasuke with a pair of meters to spare!.

And Sasuke Still hadn't Moved! Was he stupid or what?

"hey...Are you alright?... scaredy cat?" It was satisfying, really, he wanted to say that back to him since that time with Tazuna and the demon brothers. But there was no time to Gloat. The white-faced bastard got his long tongue and with it he lifted him. Damn, He knew he hadn't the time to spare to make sasuke wake up from his terrified state!

he could not move! the pale guy had him in an iron grip with his tongue and lifted him.they met face to face. And he was Helpless. He kept struggling to get out.He couldn't die there! He had still to become hokage!

And pale face said that he was the nine tailed fox! he knew! how? he was a grass nin, It was impossible that he knew!

he moved harder trying to get out! the creepy dude was doing something to his belly! Great! was the Grass shinobi a pervert?

he looked at the hand of the grass nin, there were five smaller blue fires, that looked bad. He moved harder, he tried to kick the grass Shinobi...

the grass shinobi shouted "GOGIO FUIN! (five element seal!)"

he felt a burning sensation to his stomach, and inmediately after the burning sensation started spreading all around his body. he felt the kyuubi chakra leaving him, his eyes turning back blue, his conscience fading...

the world was tuning black, and he felt himself falling. the last thing he saw before losing consciouness was Uchiha Sasuke.

Sasuke-bastard was still there frozen in fear! And they called him stupid!

well... He was the one falling to his death.

**XXX**

was he dead?. He looked Around. If he was dead definitely he wasn't in heaven, there was no free ramen around.Was it hell then? it was different from what expected hell to be. He expected a huge dark cave, raging flames, huge demons, boiling cauldrons, sulfur smell... that sort of thing. All in a shade of red. He didn't expect dark passageways filled with water.

well. he had nothing to lose. He was already in hell, right? he followed the passageway.

Yes. It was hell. His own personal hell. There he was, in front of kyuubi. Or what he supposed was the kyuubi. Not that he wanted to meet him personally, thank you very much.

It was a Giant cage, With steel bars, oddly enough, there were two sets of bars. The first ones, nearer to the kyuubi, were vertical, and the second set, nearer to him, were horitzontal.

(Author notes: the second set, are products of orochimaru tampering with the seal)

he sighed in relief, at least, the beast was sleeping. He didn't want to meet the kyuubi. The giant furball was the responsible that his life was shit.

Well, not that it really mattered. He was already dead.

he looked at the sleeping kyuubi, wondering if he should wake him. What would he ask him? When he was thinking about it, a voice startled him. "It had been a Long time, Kyo-kun"

he turned himself. there was another cage. And inside of it was a smiling dead man. The fourth hokage.


	2. A Little talk

**_IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ: _**It reached me, that I somewhat used a name for a main character that was the same as another history, really, It was a mistake, somehow, In my mind, the fourth name was always called that. I truthfully Tought that it was the name that was written in Jiraya's scroll during the gamabunta summoning training. I guess It's far from it.

Adding the fact that my fic starts in the same manner that bloodlines, from the SOCpuppet, It could lead to unconfortable misunderstandings. I deeply apologize for that, and deeply encourage everyone to go read the wonderful Bloodlines from the SOCpuppett.

Also, I want to say that I changed the old name that the fourth had in my history from Kazama Arashi, to Kuchiba kiiro. In my limited understanding of japanese those names are two diferend words from yellow. Kiiro is basically yellow in japanese, and a Kuchiba is supposed to be yellow leaves, yes, those that common in Autumm.

I deeply apologize for it Again

FROG MASK CHAPTER II 

By Blackmamuth

Naruto stared at the supposed dead man. The smiling dead man. The smiling bastard that sealed the furball in his belly. He couldn't control himself; he pointed with his finger at the man and shouted.

"YOU! BASTARD! YOU ARE THE RESPONSIBLE FOR SEALING THE FURBALL IN ME!YOU DESTROYED MY LIFE!"

Naruto outburst had an effect that no previous outburst from him ever had. The receiver of his angry shout looked so sad, that would break the heart of the most evil being in the universe. The man responded, with a sad voice.

"Trust me, kyo, there was no other option. If there was, do you think I would have done this?" He moved his hand in a wide arc, pointing at his surroundings, the snoring kyuubi, and the bars in the cage…

Naruto continued looking at him. The man continued. "Do you think I wanted to die? do you think I wanted to seal her in you?" what kind of heartless bastard you took me for? Kyo, there was NO other option, he said, while tears appearing in his eyes.

Naruto was puzzled, who was kyo? why was the fourth calling him that? He scratched his head. And asked. "Uh…, who is kyo?"

The man eyes widened. He was speechless. In a shaking voice he asked "nno… you… but.. It's impossible!" she whispered to himself "she would have told you! It's impossible… " the man looked at Naruto eyes and said. It's your name, kyo, Kuchiba kyo!"

That name rang a bell in Naruto's head. He had somewhere else that name. Where, where he had heard it? Naruto tried to recall it… when he had heard about that… Yes, Iruka Sensei had said it in history of Konoha class… yes, she knew. It was the second hokage, right? Was he related to the second hokage?

He asked the man. "So… I'm related to the second Hokage?" the man seemed even sadder when he said that. He said, while now avoiding eye contact with Naruto. "No, the second wasn't a Kuchiba, I am, my name is Kuchiba Kiiro", the man paused, and then added "I'm your father".

Naruto, lost his step, and fell backwards in the water, wetting himself, while looking at the caged man, who revealed himself as his father. He stared, his mouth hanging open.

Kuchiba Kiiro was seated in his tiny cell, in a big rock that was barely surfacing the water. He was wearing the traditional konoha jounin uniform, complete with camouflage pants and a flak jacket, a white cape with burning flames decorating it, He had his konoha forehead protector tied in his right shoulder, and his spiked blonde hair reached his shoulders. He looked no older than twenty-two, the age he had when he "died".

"LIAR!" Naruto shouted while observing the fourth reaction. Was that serious? Was that true?

Naruto asked"you…… are my father?... How?" Naruto asked, while looking at Kiiro with hopeful eyes, like a dream come true, inwardly dreading the truth. That it was a lie. That he would wake up and find that it was a dream. The he was alone again.

The man smirked; an evil idea entered his mind. "Do you mean you don't know how babies are made? Weeeeell… It's an interesting concept…" He said, his eyes betraying his inner mirth. He continued "do you know about flowers and bees?"

"NOOOOOO, SHUT UP! I ALREADY KNOW THAT!" Naruto Shouted. He glared at the older man who was laughing at him. "I mean I was told I was an orphan, No one told me who my family was!"

The man regained his previous serious attitude immediately. "Your mother didn't tell you?"

Naruto looked confused. "My mother? I am an orphan. The third told me that my parents died during the kyuubi attack"

The fourth seemed really surprised by that statement.

What happened to her? Last time he'd seen her, she was sleeping peacefully, after kyo had been born. She was only tired...

How was that possible? She wasn't there to take care of Kyo? The only answers for that were that she wasn't able to do so... He knew her. There were two possibilities, or she didn't know, like somebody told her that Kyo died with him or something like that, or she was unable to do so. In a Coma, Insane, ... Or Dead. With a capital D. The idea was so horrific, that he was barely containing his tears.

He knew what was growing up without anyone. He knew it very well. He was an orphan himself.

Naruto then asked. "Ne, ne, how is that I wasn't told about you being my father?"

Kiiro answered: "No one knew, there was an issue in your mother's clan" he then added. "Are you familiar in bloodline seals?"

Since Naruto looked puzzled, he explained about it. "You see, in certain clans, especially those that have a bloodline, they use a seal to make sure that they blood doesn't go out of control of the clan. For example, the hyuuga's have the caged-bird seal. If someone of the clan betrays them, they go, use it, and kill them. In the wrong hands it's basically a slavery jutsu."

Naruto was horrified. A slavery jutsu? What kind of sick bastard used a jutsu like that? He made a decision. He straightened his legs, looked at his father eyes, and shouted "WHEN I BECOME HOKAGE, I WILL OUTLAW THAT! THAT'S A PROMISE! AND I DON'T GO BACK IN MY WORDS! IT'S MY NINJA WAY!"

The man winced at the volume of the statement, but chose to ignore it. "Yes, err… I was going to do that, but the kyuubi attacked before I did anything about it". He looked at the sleeping beast in the cage in front of him. Good, Naruto hadn't awoken her. Kyuubi didn't appreciate being awakened. And he had no desire to deal to an annoyed giant furball.

"Well, about those slavery seals. Your mother clan had one, not a particularly nasty one, but pretty bad, especially if you were a female of said clan" He smiled. "Since they didn't want their bloodline to escape their control, they gave every female born in the clan a cursed seal. A cursed seal that destroyed their ability to have babyes. If they married outside the clan, they couldn't be mothers."

Naruto was sickened. How could someone destroy the chance of someone to have a family? And he was related to those bastards? Great. Just great.

"the fact is that your grandfather didn't like that seal, basically, the history is that his twin was given the seal, and when she found that she wouldn't be able to have a family of her own, she killed herself".

Naruto closed his fists in anger. Anyone who wanted to form a family should be able to do so.

"And when your mother was born, your grandfather knew that the main family would give her the cursed seal, destroying her chance to have a family. Since he didn't want that, he told everyone,the village and the main family that he had a son, not… He named her Mako. It was because of that that we told no one about our relationship. If they found the truth about Mako, they would have given her the seal and sentenced to death your grandfather." He smiled "and even worse, you wouldn't be here"

Naruto was getting every word, every bit of knowledge burned in his mind. It was the first time in all his life that anyone told him about his family.

Kiiro sighed. "The plan was that a pair of weeks after I was nominated hokage, I was going to abolish the use of the cursed seals. And come clean about the relationship with your mother. Fate had other plans, Ms-I-have-nine-tails-and-I'm-Immortal attacked our village, and I had to help defend it. The only way I found to stop her, was sealing her into a live container. Nothing would be strong enough to accept the foreign charka without dying. Only a newborn baby wouldn't have his chakra system developed, thus being able to accept the foreign charka of the kyuubi. And those days, the only newborn baby was you."

Kiiro stopped talking. Naruto was thinking so hard, that it seemed that smoke was going to escape his ears. He then reached a conclusion. "Ne, Ne, Did you said that mom had a bloodline? I have a bloodline?. Tell me!"

Kiiro smiled at his childish antics. "kyo…" And then suddenly Naruto Interjected. "NO! MY NAME IS UZUMAKI NARUTO! REMEMBER THAT!"

The fourth hokage smiled at him. "Okay, Naruto, I will remember that"

Naruto entered hyper mode and asked " about my bloodline! Is it cool? What I can do? Fly? Freeze enemies, see trough walls? What can I do? Tell me! Tell!"

Kiiro scratched his head and said. "well, I am not sure if you inherited it. Your mother had a Doujutsu, an eye bloodline. But everyone in her clan that manifested the bloodline had deep brown eyecolor. And you eyes are blue… I guess that you didn't inherit it…"

Naruto was dejected. He didn't have a bloodline after all? How unfair!

"Hey, Naruto, don't look so sad, maybe you have it… You uncle Obito didn't awaken his sharingan until he was fifteen years old."

Naruto head started going faster than ever,after his father las words. Especially the sharingan. The uncle part was interesting too, but what Kiiro had said had implications. Scary, Horrible, downright disturbing implications. But he had to ask it.

"hey, Dad, Dues that mean that I'm related to Sasuke-bastard?"

Kiiro looked lost for a moment, and then comprehended the question. "yes, Uchiha Sasuke is related to you. Your grandfather are brothers."

Yes. It was now official. Naruto was in hell. Related to the stuck up bastard Sasuke? It was disturbing.

Kiiro asked. "and what about you? How are you doing"

Naruto smiled weaky and replied: "pretty well, after all, I'm dead."

Kiiro denied with his head. "No, you aren't dead. Dreaming, Incounscious, yes, maybe even in coma, but not dead. We wouldn't be talking it if you were. I think that something tampered with the seal. Those bars appeared here an hour ago. Tell me Naruto what happened?"

Naruto then remembered something. "SHIT,SHIT,SHIT! THE PALE FACED BASTARD WAS GOING TO GET SASUKE! I HAVE TO GET UP NOW!"

Kiiro said: "calm down, Naruto, and explain me what happened, slowly"

And Naruto explained it to him: The chuunin exam, and their encounter with the Snake man, and his fight with him. Kiiro did seem very interested with the seal the Snake man used with him. After the explanation, Kiiro looked thoughtful.

After thinking for a moment he added "In your current situation, the most urgent would be awakening you. But since I don't know how to do that and you will awaken with time, I guess we would have to spent our time doing something constructive. I will teach you something you will need to do after waking up"


	3. Waking Up

**_IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ: _**It reached me, that I somewhat used a name for a main character that was the same as another history, really, It was a mistake, somehow, in my mind, the fourth name was always called that. I truthfully thought that it was the name that was written in Jiraya's scroll during the gamabunta summoning training. I guess it's far from it.

Adding the fact that my fic starts in the same manner that bloodlines, from the SOCpuppet, It could lead to uncomfortable misunderstandings. I deeply apologize for that, and deeply encourage someone to go read the wonderful Bloodlines from the SOCpuppett.

Also, I want to say that I changed the old name that the fourth had in my history from Kazama Arashi, to Kuchiba kiiro. In my limited understanding of Japanese those names are two different words from yellow. Kiiro is basically yellow in Japanese, and a Kuchiba is supposed to be one of those yellow leaves that common in autumn. (Hey, it's the leaf village, right?)

I deeply apologize for it again.

ALSO: I'm open to votes for future pairings for Naruto. Available choices are the Hinata, Sakura, Tenten, and to a lower degree Ino. Give your vote in your review. Also, Other suggestions are welcome, but I'm leading myself for NaruHina, or NaruTen

FROG MASK CHAPTER III 

By Blackmamuth

**_Chuunin Exams, Second test, 43 Hours Remaining_**

Naruto felt a painful knock in his head, and he found himself suddenly awake. but he didn't show it, At his front was Sasuke and Sakura, sitting in the ground, at his left was the thickbrows, and Ino, the thickbrows was barely standing and leaning on the girl. But that was not the important point, where was Orochimaru? (Yes, she knew about him, his father was kind enough to tell everything he knew about him).

His father had said after his retelling of his encounter with Haku (which included him saving Sasuke, from the demon brothers, to rescuing Sasuke from Haku) "The key of a succeful shinobi is his head, A shinobi who does not think, will not be a very succeful shinobi" he said after he told him about hi entrance in the bridge battle, and especially after he told him about entering Haku demon mirror's trap willingly.

After talking about the situation he was when he entered dreamland, he and Kiiro talked about a further plan of action. First of all, Orochimaru was a missing Nin, So if he was still there, he was supposed to perform his strongest Kage bunshin when the pale faced bastard wasn't looking, and send them all to the tower to gather help.

So he looked around him. No sign of that Orochimaru, that was good. What was bad was the presence of some other shinobi's. That was very bad. After all it was a survival exam. They could be trying to steal their scroll. Yes, definitively they were trying to steal their scroll, so he suddenly jumped up, grabbed a pair of Kunai from his kunai pouch, and was going to launch them to the battered Lee and Ino, when he found that he couldn't move.

"What? What happens to me? I can't move!" He exclaimed. Was the pale faced guy again? He inwardly berated himself; the plan was to appear unconscious, while he understood the situation... And he forgot to check behind him. What kind of ninja he was?

Shikamaru's shadow had just connected with Naruto's.

Sakura seemed pissed off at him. She shouted "NARUTO, STOP, THEY HELPED US, THEY ARE IN OUR SIDE!"

It took few seconds for it to sink. They are with us? Ok, it made sense. He nodded with his head, regaining his calm. A strange shadow broke the connection it had suddenly he could move again, and with the inertia he had, he fell to the ground. "Hmpff..." He ignored the pain the fall left him and looked at his back. There was Nara Shikamaru and chouji. And before he had time to say anything, Shikamaru said "hey, you fell yourself, don't blame Me." and then he added, "How troublesome"

"Then, he noticed something and shouted in a worried tone, completely ignoring Shikamaru and Chouji while approaching his teammates. "SAKURA-CHAN!" He ran towards her.

Sakura looked back at him, a little scared because of his worried tone, and then Naruto revealed what was troubling him "SAKURA-CHAN, YOUR HAIR!"

Sakura looked like it wasn't a big deal," oh, that? It's a change of look" and then added, "truthfully, I prefer long hair, but it would have been a bother for traveling in the woods"

Ino and Sasuke kept silent about that. Naruto wondered if they knew something he didn't. What happened when he was in dreamland? He would have to ask, But before he was able to do so, a beautiful female shinobi landed in front of Sakura and the unconscious Lee, She was dressed in a sleeveless pink Chinese shirt, a black pants, and shed her hair tied in two buns, one of each side of her head. She said "I'll take care of him…"

She grabbed Lee, and started to shake him forcefully, while yelling "GET UP LEE!". And it was working; Lee awakened, and even in his half zombie state, recognized his teammate. "Huh… Tenten, what are you doing here?

Tenten was annoyed at her teammate, obviously. She missed their meeting, and she engaged a team of three ALONE against express instructions and commons sense, and he had his ass kicked in the process. If he cost them the exam, there was going to be hell to pay . She said "I've come to save you"

Then Lee asked about the sound shinobi's, and that obviously annoyed Tenten, After all, Lee was in no state to fight anytime soon, and the hopeless fool still looked for enemies. Typical of him.

Tenten scolded him, "How did you get the brilliant idea to fight ALONE?" At that, Lee visibly flinched. "Look at your state, it will take days to get you back to shape!"

She reviewed in her mind what she had seen of the combat with the three sound nins, and reached a conclusion. There was nothing that Lee could have done against them. The thought made her angry. She couldn't control herself "YOU ARE AN IDIOT!" she shouted.

Lee adopted a contrite expression, obviously deeply regretting his actions. "This time, I have no excuse" he said, totally subjugated by Tenten domineering attitude.

Naruto couldn't help himself, seeing a boy getting a lecture from a girl, he Laughed, Hard, and pointing at Lee, he said "HAHA!. POOR FUZZY-EYEBROWS!"

Tenten now directed her irritation at Naruto. Lee helped saving his ass while he was unconscious. What right he had to laugh at Lee? She briefly toyed with the idea of sending a pair of throwing kunai towards him as punishment, But Sakura beat her in giving punishment to the loudmouth. She punched Naruto so hard, that he flew literally 20 meters before landing. Tenten respect towards the pink haired kuonichi rose from 'I can't believe they let her become a kuonichi' category to 'Is she idiot or what' category. She punched him hard and she knew he deserved it, but injuring your teammate in a middle of an exam wasn't a good idea.

At the other end of the clearing, Shikamaru commented to chouji. "handling girls is not his thing I guess"

Sakura then Thanked lee. "You have made me realize something. I think now I'm a little stronger". Tears appeared in Lee's eyes after Sakura's statement. But a thought was still in his mind. He was unable to defend Sakura. "I'm not strong enough" Lee said, and then looked at Sasuke "Sasuke, You must be truly an Uchiha Genius, you made them run away where I was beaten in an instant".

That surprised Sasuke. He knew how strong Lee was, he lost against him before the first exam. How was possible that these three defeated Lee? Was that mark responsible for that?

Lee painfully got up, and looked at Sakura. "The Lotus flower of Konohagakure village will bloom again. And next time wee met, I will be much stronger. I promise it."

Tenten felt relieve a little at that statement. Lee was back to his normal self. Well, as Normal as Lee could be.

Sakura felt touched by Lee's determination. She smiled at him. "Alright!", She said at him, while Naruto pouted. Sakura never treated him that way. It was unfair!"

Then Ino Shouted at Sakura. "SAKURA, COME HERE A MOMENT. I WILL FIX YOUR HAIR".

Ino actually fixed Sakura's hair, while trading with her some insulting remarks, especially about her hugging Sasuke. The animosity between the two kuonichi's reaching new heights.

Meanwhile, Neji mentally evaluated Sasuke ability as a Ninja. He liked challenges

**XXX**

_**Chuunin Exams, Second test, 38 Hours Remaining**_

Naruto looked around. He was alone, finally, he volunteered to go looking for wood, but for what he really wanted to do he had to be alone, not that Sakura complained about it. He was worrying about Sasuke, and having her time alone with Sasuke was a dream come true for her.

Naruto seated himself in a big tree shadow, and opened his backpack. He got from it his mirror, (an extremely useful Ninja tool, good for looking around without actually exposing yourself, and for giving signals for friendly Ninja's)

He now took off his jacket and black T-shirt, exposing his naked torso to the morning breeze.

Now it was the hard part. He subjected his mirror in the tree with a Kunai, where it reflected his belly, and he used the Monkey seal to mold charka, like his father had said. Immediately, his seal was visible, a seal which was different from last time he'd seen it.

Naruto reached his pack again, and grabbed his writing brush from a closed plastic container and placed it near him. Then he opened his Kunai pouch and selected a small Kunai, specifically designed to hide in hour forearms. It was very small and sharp, perfect for the job it had to do.

He swallowed, one mistake could have catastrophic consequences.

He lifted his Kunai, closed his eyes, and stabbed himself in his left Arm, Blood now flowing freely.

He threw rapidly his kunai, and grabbed his brush, he moved it towards his blood, and let the brush soak as much at it could.

He tried to calm himself. That was the easy part. He looked at the seal in his Stomach using the Mirror, mentally remembering the seals and symbols his father taught him to reverse Orochimaru five element seal.

He started very slowly and carefully. …The first step was that counterclockwise elephant seal…

**XXX**

_**Chuunin Exams, Second test, 37 Hours Remaining**_

It was done, The drawings of the seal were now ready. Now, it was the time to complete the difficult unsealing jutsu. He was now really Nervous. That seal caged the kyuubi, the strongest of the youkaii, the demon who massacred in less than an hour more than a quarter of the Shinobi contingent of Konoha.

And he was tampering with the seal that caged the immortal demon, under the instructions of a man he only met in his dreams. Yeah, he was insane.

He steeled his resolve. He promised he'd do it. And wasn't the greatest Hokage that ever lived yet, so he had to do this.

He started to make the handseals. Yes, the 57 of them. A long list of handseals he had to memorize in those short hours of sleep. He started doing them, in fast succession.

Monkey, ram, monkey, tiger, boar, bird, monkey, rat, dog, horse, serpent, dragon, hare, tiger, bird, ox, rat, horse…

…rat, ox, dragon. The jutsu was complete, Naruto felt the pulsating chakra in his hands, only one last thing to do. There was something he forgot thought, but he couldn't put the finger on it. He ignored that feeling, and continued with the instructions. He forcefully pushed his hand with glowing charka against his seal.

The red drawings around the seal were now slowly being absorbed by the glowing blue chakra, and the kyuubi seal, leaving his skin clear of blood, The process was getting more painful every second that passed.

The pain in his charka system was unbearable, it was like his body was all covered in fire, he felt an immense chakra escaping from the seal, and slowly filling his chakra system, his eyes turned to a deep shade of crimson, his birthmarks thickened, he felt his canines grow in his mouth, and his ears got pointy…

He was completely surrounded by red chakra now, The chakra of the kyuubi. His aspect was the same as the other time he used the fox chakra. When he couldn't stand anymore, and was about to star to scream from sheer torture, the sensation started to recede. His birthmarks slimed again, his ears regained their lovely round shape, his eyes returned to his normal blue, and the burning sensations slowly disappeared.

The process was eating all his energy thought. He was losing consciousness again, he realized, He felt weaker and weaker. And in a sudden moment of insight, he realized what was bothering him a moment ago. ¡¡He used a mirror to help him draw the seal!. Shit! In mirror's you get the image inversed. He had inversed the drawing!. He cursed his stupidity. He wanted to throw more random insults at himself, but he exchanged his anger at himself for fear, when he heard the maniacal laugh of the Kyuubi

"**HAHAHAHAHAHAHA….."**

After that. He lost consciousness.

**END CHAPTER**

Like it, hate it? Review!

**Arrowofhikaru,animewatcher,shinji-higurashi,HanaTenshiHimeko,whiterose03: **Thank you

**Dragon Man 180: **Not Exactly, I'm open to suggestions

Hope then that he doesn't find out.

**Jpthug12: **Naruto-anko Lol, That one would be too hard to pull off, especially if Naruto don't go in a dark path. That is not likely going to happen, Naruto-Kyuubi? Hmm, strange, but possible… Hard to write, And, Imho, very unlikely. Naruto-Sakura, That one is reasonably possible, We will see.

**Unit avis fortior: Thank you **

**Xoni Newcomer: **I see your points, really. The similarities are notable, but as you see, there are important differences. Naruta being related to the Uchiha's and more to come.

Don't worry, only the initial premise is similar.

About the name, I guess I noted is a popular name for the fourth Around here. I noted more than one fic with that Name. I changed that, I do not want to be acused of plagiarizing.

I agree that the idea has been done before, but I think I will be able to pull it off succefully. Thank you for your review. I enjoy constructive criticism.


	4. The new situation

Thank you everyone for your reviews, they give me the drive to continue writing. I will say again, you can vote for your favourite pairing. Note that voting doesen't meant for sure that I will write the winning pair. Heh, available choices are, Hinata, Sakura, Tenten, Ino(I'm not very fond of her, but is a possible pairing), and maybe Shizune(last minute addition, not really sure about her about the age difference, but is an option too.)

FROG MASK CHAPTER IV 

By Blackmamuth

"**Kyuubi speaking"**

"Kiiro speaking"

'People thinking'

**_Inside Naruto, Chuunin Exams, Second test, 37 Hours Remaining_**

A young man was pacing inside a tiny cell in a dark sewer, while whispering to himself "he can do it" again and again, trying to convince himself.

Kuchiiba Kiiro was nervous. Really Nervous, Naruto was going to do a highly difficult Unsealing technique without proper supervision, and with only a few hours of rushed training. The fact that he had to get it right in his first try was also a motive to worry about.

What possessed him to encourage his little baby to do that? Well, the fact that there was no alternative. After their chat, he had learned that Jiraiya-sensei and Tsunade were no longer in the village, even worse, Naruto hadn't heard of them in his life. He hoped they weren't dead.

That was really bad. Only they had enough skill to unseal that five element seal, no one else in the village had enough knowledge to do it. (Well, there could be someone able to do it; his information was twelve years outdated)

To be honest, the third or a high level medic shinobi, maybe even someone really skilled with sealing jutsus could do it as well, but they would have to research a proper method, and that would take time, and Naruto had no time to spare. The seal didn't let the kyuubi chakra escape and fuse with Naruto chakra system, the consequence of that was that the Kyuubi's chakra was slowly accumulating in the furball's cell, an infinitely bad thing to happen. When the cell couldn't contain anymore that excess of chakra, it would explode from the pressure, leaving the kyuubi and that accumulated chakra free. That would be a disaster. And probably a messy disaster too, if his estimate was correct, and in the most optimistic approach, the explosion would wipe out only half of Konoha. Kyuubi would take care of the other half.

Naruto had four or five days left at the very maximum. He hoped he had taken the right decision. He Naruto could do it. He taught him the unsealing method, because it could be his only option. Kiira paused and stared at the old lightbulb in the sewer.

And then, it began. What seemed like an earthquake started shaking the sewer, the old lightbulb exploded with a small sound, the darkness claimed the sewer. Kiira was now nearing panic. The first time Orochimaru placed the seal; there had also been an earthquake, true, but not one of that terrifying magnitude.

The walls started to crack, the water returned to the sewer, but now, the water reached waist level, and was slowly rising. Not a good sign, really.

An orange light filled the room, a light he knew well, it was the light that emanated from the orange chakra of the kyuubi. He looked at the direction where the kyuubi cell was.

He could see her deep crimson eyes opening, looking around and booming "**WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING HERE?**" Yes, the kyuubi was awake. And she was not pleased.

Kiiro was now seated in the floor, although he tried, he was unable to stand up, and the strong shaking of the sewer didn't let him. The earthquake was growing stronger and stronger; more cracks were appearing, in the ceiling, in the walls...

The metal bars that were created by Orochimaru started to glow in a bright shade of red, and slowly, changed to yellow, while the earthquake was now so strong, that even the kyuubi couldn't stand up.

The kyuubi continued cursing "**I WILL DEFECATE IN THE RESPONSIBLE OF THIS!**" while trying to stand up, and failing miserably, even with the aid of some of her tails.

Orochimaru's seal bars was now glowing white, but they slowly lost brightness, and even more slowly, started to disappear, event thought the earthquake was continuing. Now, random pieces of debris were falling from the ceiling.

Kiiro heard a great explosion at his back, and then the earthquake seemed to calm instantly. There were still random shakes, but nothing too unbearable. When he looked back, what was a solid wall a moment ago, was now a huge hole, and inside you could discern a spiral staircase covered by spider webs. While he was wondering what to do about that, he heard the loud voice of that overgrown kitsune. "**YES! YES! AN EXIT! FREEE, FREEEE AT LAST!" **After twelve years of being the neighbor of the nine tails, he knew the Kyuubi fairly well, and she wouldn't let escape that opportunity. Kiiro glanced back at the opposite cell, and what he saw frightened him. The kyuubi had a huge hole in the wall of his cell, and there was also stairs going up. The kyuubi didn't doubt about the course of action. **"WORLD, GET READY, THIS GIRL IS BACK IN TOWN!**" She escaped through that hole while maniacally laughing "**MUAHAHAHHAHAHA!**"

Kiiro cursed, and ran up into his set of stairs, somehow, he felt that reaching the top first was a matter of life and death, so he ran upstairs at full speed. (And for the yellow flash, the fastest ninja in Konoha, full speed was something near mach 7, there would be a sonic boom if it wasn't for the fact that he was a ninja, a silent killer. He made no sound.

The stairs were long, and he was starting to grow tired, it was already more than an hour at full speed (and being a ninja, his resistance was huge), but that maniacal laughter from the kyuubi gave him forces to continue.

There, finally, was light at the end of the tunnel. A doorway filled with light was at the end of the stairs. And without a second thought, he entered it.

**_Chuunin Exams, Second test, 35 Hours Remaining_**

Naruto regained consciousness like always, completely healed and rested. Yes, back to normal. Before the unsealing procedure, he felt sore and weary. Having a giant furball inside had some good points after all. Three month ago, he believed that everyone healed that fast. Well, it was a tiny compensation for how the village treated him.

He opened his eyes, he had no idea how much he slept it was time to get back to the camp. Sakura-Chan was now probably worried sick.

A deep voice reverberated inside his head**. "OOOH, Pretty Colors!" **Naruto jumped three meter in the air, while looking around** "**WHO'S THERE?**"**. Naruto

Shouted

"**SILENCE, FLEA, I'M ENJOYING THE ENVIROMENT!" **Naruto picked a blood stained kunai from the ground (the one he used to draw blood for the unsealing, and looked at the surroundings, trying to locate the owner of the powerful voice

"SHOW YOURSELF, FIGHT LIKE A MAN!" he shouted randomly at the forest. Kyuubi answered back. "**MAN? MAN? YOU DARE INSULT ME? YOU SORRY EXCUSE FOR A LIVING BEING? I'M KYUUBI, THE GREATEST OF ALL YOUKAI, RIDICULOUS HUMAN"**

Naruto was now panicking, 'I messed up, It's my entire fault! Damn Mirror! I'm the biggest Idiot to ever live!' Naruto thought. "**I agree, you are most definitely the biggest idiot to ever live".**

Naruto shouted "HEY! Take that back!" he tried to glare at the source of the voice, but he couldn't find it. He looked around madly, trying to locate it. After he was unable to find him, he asked. "Where are you?"

The kyuubi Laughed** " HAHAHAHA… I'm closer than you think, I'm in your head, Idiotic simian"**

"GET OUT! LEAVE ME ALONE! GO BACK WHERE YOU BELONG!" Naruto shouted as loud as he could.

"**Do you think I will go back there, when in your head are more interesting things to do?" **

"STOP MESSING WITH MY HEAD!" Naruto shouted. **"Messing? But if I hadn't done anything… yet." **Naruto felt Kyuubi smirking in his head. "**I can see whatever you see, I can hear everything you hear, I can smell what you smell, and I can feel everything you feel. I bet I can control this ridiculous body if I try. "**

"I will not allow such a thing" A new voice said, a voice that Naruto recognized instantly, it was kuchiba Kiiro, Fourth Hokage, Yellow flash of Konoha, and his father."** AND HOW WILL YOU STOP ME, WORTHLESS MONKEY?**", "Easily Ignorant fox..."Kiiro said "thanks to the seal, to control Naruto's body, you have to overpower his conscious will. And since I'm here, my will too. I will help him to keep you in line." He added, in a cold and serious voice that promised hell. "You will hurt Naruto Over my dead body"

"**OOOHHHH, how sweet… I'm going to cry"** Kyuubi sarcastically said. **"Do you really think I care about that pathetic simian body? I'M THE GREATEST OF ALL YOUKAI, I will not lower myself to steal an inferior being pathetic body!" **Naruto was now pissed at kyuubi. "MY BODY IS NOT PATHETIC!" He shouted. He was lucky he was alone in his section of the forbidden forest, because if someone heard him talking alone, not only he would be attacked, he would be labeled as crazy. "**HAHAHAHAHA… Your offspring is surely amusing, Blondie, I didn't laugh that much in the last 300 years! I will enjoy watching him immensely **"Kiiro voice added. "Yes, he is something special"

"Now, to more important matters. What did you do to the seal?", Naruto hesitated, and scratched his head. "Ehh… I kind of messed it up, you see, I used a mirror…" Kiiro shouted "WHAT, YOU MADE THE SEAL BACKWARDS? WHAT KIND OF MORON ARE YOU!"  Naruto winced at the volume his father used. It's not really nice having someone speak in your head. That, and the angry tone his father had. He only knew he had a father for less than a day, and he was already pissed off at him. What a wonderful son he was.

Kyuubi Boomed in laughter **"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA…. I can't believe it! The little baboon is even more stupider than I thought! HAHAHA…" **

"Shut up, you oversized furball!" Naruto Shouted. The kyuubi stopped laughing. And then Naruto asked. "by the way, what is a baboon?". It is interesting to say, that the kyuubi laughed even louder at that question. Also refused to answer said question, which annoyed Naruto immensely. Naruto wanted to know what a baboon was.

"I can't believe it, of all the ways to mess up; he had to pick the most idiotic one!" If Naruto could see his father, he would see him pacing up and down at the blindingly bright room at the end of the stairs.

A room that he labelled mind room permitted Kiiro to experiment every sensation that Naruto had, see everything Naruto was seeing. The sun, the gentle breeze, his hunger, the weight of his kunai pouch in his back, and everything Naruto could see and smell. In short, it was like he was Naruto body, but without being able to do anything, a mere spectator.

There were more doorways there, but he hadn't explored them yet. Also, he could see the Kyuubi now in front of him in the same room with an expression that barely hid her inner mirth at the father-son exchange. He toyed with the idea of rasenganing her multitailed bottom, but in reality fighting was not a good thing to do. After all, the kyuubi was immortal, and the fourth hokage was already death. It would be an infinite fight.

Naruto said, "Ne, Ne, I have to go back to my team, they will worry about me, I don't know how long has passed!" Kiiro sighed. Okay, we will talk about it this night"

END CHAPTER

**Dragon Man 180: **Thank you, and yes, And about the speaking in public Issue, we will see

**Sephynarutocloud,azn pride,shadow132,Storm spiral,Arnoldstrife, Shinji-Higurashi, Arrowofhikaru, Somedude,shina-lim,Insanechildfanfic,The dragon bard, hana tenshi himeko**: Thanks all of you, I enjoy reviews.

**Narutofreak360**: Nope,nothing official about that, but is a well know theory

**Uzumakitoshiro: **Thank you. And they play shougi

**Mrasdfghj: **thanks, And I guess I will do that.

**Randomreader: **you have a point, but I refuse to have a main character invincible or unbeatable,Naruto has flaws, one of them, is that always jumps without cheking the water level. For example the fight with Haku, he entered inside the demon mirrors. And I need him to screw up for plot purposes too.

**maxhrk,**Nope, No dark Naruto.

**Kurochaos: **Nope, I need a Konoha shinobi for plot purposes. Naruto-Temari is impossible due to the planned plot.

**Tsugath: **Naruto is sometimes an idiot, true. Nope, I do not have anything about Yaoi, but I'm unable to write it.

**Jannie135: yep**, I really think I need a beta. Anyone offers?

**Joekool**: Uhmm, Naruto is related to the Uchiha clan. It's the Sharingan (But he won't awaken it yet)


	5. Teammates

Thank you everyone for your reviews, they give me the drive to continue writing. I will say again, you can vote for your favorite pairing. Note that voting doesn't meant for sure that I will write the winning pair. Heh, available choices are, Hinata, Sakura, Tenten, Ino(I'm not very fond of her, but is a possible pairing), and maybe Shizune(last minute addition, not really sure about her about the age difference, but is an option too.) 

**FROG MASK**

_CHAPTER V : Teammates_

By Blackmamuth

"**Kyuubi speaking"**

"Kiiro speaking"

_A teammate, is supposed to be a blessing. Traditional wisdom says that you must know your teammate better than yourself, know their reaction before they react, And especially, care for each other. you and your teammates are supposed to react as one being. train as one being, and fight as one being. It's interesting to say that the definition of friend is not so different from that. It's a shame teamwork in genin cell 7 was nowhere to be seen._

_Uzumaki Naruto _

**_Chuunin Exams, Second test, 34 Hours Remaining_**

Naruto was now near the river, the spot they picked to be used as a temporary base from the exam, was not far ahead. Naruto was nervous, what if he was unconscious for hours? what will they say? even worse, what if he was unconscious for days, surpassing the time they had left therefore failing the exam?.

It was not a pleasant thought. "Cheer up, even if you fail, there will be more exams!" Kiiro said, effectively darkening his son mood even more.

Naruto finally saw the river, and the camp the team had made, he could see the hastily improvised tent, and the fire near the river, where they cook fish. It was a relief, he was not too late.

"I can't believe someone was stupid enough to make a fire in a survival exam!" Kiiro exclaimed! "everyone could see the smoke in kilometers!". Naruto flinched at that. He didn't think about that! well, in his defense, It was Sakura idea.

He could now see Sasuke and Sakura, Sasuke was still resting in the improvised tent, and Sakura had already seen him, and was running towards him. Naruto grinned. Sakura was so happy to see him, Naruto noted happily that she couldn't control herself, and was running to hug him. Naruto opened his arms wide, expecting the Hug, while shouting "SAKURA-CHAN". But he didn't get a hug, he did get a straight punch in his face, a punch that send him to the ground.

"What was that for?" Naruto asked.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR? you left FOUR hours ago! FOUR! to go looking for wood! and then you return with NOTHING!" Inner Sakura was agreeing with outer Sakura "YES! HE IS AN IDIOT SHANAROO!"

Naruto was scared by her teammate temper. He was rubbing his head, trying to ease the pain Sakura's punch dealt. "whoa, this one has a temper...". Kiiro said.

Naruto retorted, "Tell me about it, that punch really hurt."

Kiiro said back, "yeah, I felt it too, Did I already say that I could feel everything you feel, by the way, who is her"

Naruto seemed offended, "She is Sakura-chan, my teammate!"

"huh", Sakura looked at him like he had grown another head. Did just Naruto introduce her? Could Naruto be in some kind of Genjutsu? She made a handseal, and shouted "KAI" effectively dispelling simple genjutsus.

"huh, Sakura-chan? what are you doing?" Naruto asked, while moving sideways his head.

Kiiro sighed " Naruto, she can't hear me, and talking to me is confusing her. Instead Try to think, I believe I can hear your thoughts."

Sakura looked embarrassed. "Nothing Naruto" Inner Sakura said. 'how could I have thought That Naruto was in a Genjutsu, His mind is too simple to be affected with that'

'really' Naruto thought, 'you can hear me?'

"yes Naruto, I can hear you"

'cool' Naruto thought, 'Can you do telepathy too?'

Kiiro just Ignored that question.

Sakura seemed calmer, and asked, trying to forget her blunder for thinking Naruto was under Genjutsu. "what happened Naruto? how is that you were gone for four hours and you returned without the wood you were supposed to bring?"

"the Wood, Damn! I knew I was forgetting something!"

Sakura anger level got up another notch. "YOU DISSAPEAR FOR FOUR HOURS LOOKING FOR WOOD, AND YOU JUST FORGET TO GET IT, WHAT DID YOU DO THEN!"

Naruto was panicking now, 'what I say, what I say, I can't tell her that I had gone to lift the five element seal Orochimaru put to the Kyuubi seal?'

Kiiro chuckled at the predicament where his son was "You can always say that you got lost in the road of life."

'Yeah, good Idea, thank you, you saved my life' Naruto thought strongly.

"WAIT, that never worked, we always knew Obito was lying!" Kiiro said, trying to prevent his son to make a fool of himself.

Naruto scratched his head, moved his head sideways, and closed his eyes, effectively assuming his practiced mask. The mask of the dense and adorable prankster, the mask he used for the last twelve years. "Ne,Ne Sakura-chan, I got Lost and I didn't knew how to get back."

even Inner Sakura sweat dropped and was left speechless. It was typical of him , He was Unique. A Leaf shinobi getting lost in a forest? The mere idea was ridiculous, but only Naruto was capable of that.

Sakura Sighed, he grabbed Naruto's ear, and dragged him to the tent, where Sasuke was resting. Sasuke was not unconscious, far from the truth, Sasuke was conscious and very pissed off. His two teammates allied themselves and ordered him to sleep. Their argument was that he was exhausted and needed rest from that fight if they wanted to pass the exam. Sasuke was not fooled thought. The reality was that Sakura wanted to 'take care of him'. (the thought that he was not capable of taking care of himself made him scowl, he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself, Thank you very much!) Naruto's motives were darker, he knew, The blonde enjoyed him being miserable, so he agreed wholeheartedly when Sakura suggested that he had to rest, and that they would take care of everything.

Sakura was still scared, the vision of Sasuke covered with a violet chakra and black marks covering half his face was always present in her subconscious. The cursed seal made Sasuke act like a psycho, and she barely stopped Sasuke from killing those sound nins. Thank god she and Naruto managed to convince Sasuke that he had to rest. She looked at the annoyed Sasuke, It had taken a good deal of arguing to have him agree that they needed to rest, at least until the last day of the exam, that they were in no condition to continue. He knew him a little, his arrogance won't let him admit that he couldn't continue, especially if Naruto was in a better state than him. That scaredy cat comment Naruto said to Sasuke had done more harm than good, reigniting their rivalry to new heights.

Sakura yawned. It was her turn to sleep now, it was now Naruto's turn to watch. "Good nigh Naruto, wake us if there is some problem, or at dawn"

She prepared her sleeping bag next to Sasuke. (while secretly Inner Sakura was suggesting to sneak into Sasuke sleeping bag)

**-XXX-**

**_Team 7 campsite, Chuunin Exams, Second test, 30 Hours Remaining_**

Naruto was seated in front of the tent, where his two teammates were sleeping, talking to his father. he had told him his life, from living in his own apartment alone at age five, the academy, the stares the villagers always gave him, and now he just told him about the night he found that the Kyuubi was sealed in him. It was the saddest and happiest night of his life, that day, he failed the genin exam, he stole the scroll of forbidden techniques from the Hokage, (Kiiro and Kyuubi laughed a good deal about how he dealt with the old man), he learned the Kage bunshin (and A class jutsu!), how Iruka and Mizuki found him, how he learned the truth why everyone hated him, that the Kyuubi was sealed on him (Kyuubi smirked at that, she loved being feared), how finally Iruka-sensei acknowledged him, and he gave him his forehead protector, a forehead protector he cherished and polished every day.

Kiiro did not show it but was burning with rage, how dare the villagers hate their savior? the boy who gave his normal life to contain the worst demon that ever lived? how they could be that stupid?

Naruto continued his tale, It was lucky that Kiiro accomplished that he thought about it, instead of talking. Because if he didn't do that, he would have already awaken his teammates 'then I got sorted in a team, with the prettiest kuonichi in the leaf and Sasuke-bastard' we were the last team to met our sensei thought, Kakashi-sensei is always late.

"KAKASHI IS YOUR JOUNIN TEACHER," Kiiro said surprised. his eyes opening wide like basketballs.

'yes, why, do you know him?'

"He was my student!", Kiiro sighed. "It seems like it was yesterday that we were doing D-ranked missions with Obito and Rin"

'You taught Kakashi-sensei? you did a lousy job, he is ALWAYS late!'

"I know, Obito's dead hit him hard, since then, everyday he pays his respects to him every morning. It's because of that he is always late."

'**HA, GREAT TEACHER! YOUR STUDENTS OR DIE, OR ARE ALWAYS LATE!" **Kyuubi said. The two humans just ignored her.

'Huh, who is that Obito dude you kept talking about?' Naruto said.

'**HEY, I JUST DELIVERED A PEARL OF WISDOM!' **Said the Kyuubi clearly annoyed she was being ignored. Naruto and his father continued without acknowledging the demon words.

"he was your uncle, Mako, your mother, had two little brothers, the middle one was Obito, he was in my team, the youngest one, Shisui, wasn't in the academy yet when I died, About Obito, he is somewhat like you, he was believed to be a disgrace for the Uchiha clan. You should know that an Uchiha starts to show signs of the sharingan when they hit around ten, I don't know exactly what are those signs, but what was a bad omen was that he needed goggles, No Uchiha who awakened the sharingan before needed Goggles, and wearing them was the biggest disgrace for an Uchiha. So when he hit fifteen without awaking it, the main house unilaterally decided that Obito had to drop his career as a Ninja, because his inability to awaken the sharingan was shaming the Uchiha clan. But he was stubborn and didn't abandon, he was determined to awaken it, always saying that it was a matter of time he finally awakened it. His family, your grandfather and your mother supported him, even risking a conflict with the main house. It was thanks to that that I meet your mother for the first time, when she went to talk with me about Obito.

"**Ohhh, How romantic! Excuse me while I go puke!" ** The demon said.

Kiiro tone saddened, while continuing his tale.

"Obito died in Kakashi first mission as a Jounin. That day was Kakashi birthday. Obito forgot to give him a present, but promised him he would give him something. That day, he finally awakened his Sharingan, but shortly after that he died protecting someone he acknowledged as a friend. He protected Kakashi with his life. his last action, was giving his hard earned eye to Kakashi, as a Birthday present. He was truly an hero of Konoha, and a Shinobi worth looking up to.

"**I'M KYUUBI, THE GREATEST OF ALL YOUKAIS, I CREATE EARTHQUAKES WITH MY TAILS, I BREATHE FIRE, I EAT CITIES FOR BREAKFAST! YOU CAN'T IGNORE ME"**

Kiiro sighed. The Kyuubi was so annoying. He continued with his tale

"It's a shame that the Main house of the Uchiha's never understood that. I should not tell you this, but your mother heard Sasuke's father saying that it was a relief that the disgrace of the Uchiha clan died and that he couldn't shame their precious name anymore."

Naruto was crying now, the story had touched him deeply. Neither of them said anything, for the remaining of the night.

Only the Kyuubi broke the silence of the night, telling them how great she was. It was a shame no one listened to her.

until Naruto, eventually, fell asleep.

**-XXX-**

_**Team 7 campsite, Chuunin Exams, Second test, 28 Hours Remaining**_

The Kyuubi had just returned to her cell, while muttering something about monkeys not giving her the proper respect she deserved, and how she was going to eat them all, slowly, very slowly, and enjoying every moment of it.

Kiiro was very grateful that the annoying and immature demon had gone to her cell to sulk. Her booming voice was giving him a headache. Or was the headache caused by his worry for his son?

'Great, just great', Kiiro thought. 'Naruto had just fallen sleep during his watch, Fantastic. And you want to become a chuunin?' Naruto was responsible for his teammates lives, falling sleep during watch was something he could not condone. (and something no chuunin would do).

He had a long way to go if he wanted to be a competent shinobi. 'I will have a lot of work with him' he muttered. 'The first lesson is going to be: You don't fall sleep when you are keeping watch'

'When Naruto wakes up, is going to hear me!' He thought angrily.

the fact that Naruto had his eyes closed, rending him unable to see anything, was another factor that explained his current mood. You don't stay for twelve years in a cold and wet cell, seeing the same landscape every day without being bored to death.

Kiiro wished Naruto's eyes to open. Unexpectedly enough, there was a flash of light, and Kiiro felt himself in a new position, seated in something that resembled a rock, his eyes closed, his mouth open. drool was falling from it.

Kiiro opened his eyes, he could see the forest at night. The forest where Naruto was. What was happening there? how is that he was out of Naruto's head and walking around?

He wiped his mouth, and moved around, Examining more closely the surroundings. Yes, It was definitely the camp team 7 had made.

He looked around, trying to find Naruto. There was the river, there was the tent where Naruto's teammates were sleeping, but No Naruto. Where was Naruto?

Kiiro had a bad feeling about it.

Kiiro did what he usually did when he had a bad feeling. check if he had all his equipment. And then was when he found what was wrong.

First of all, he had no backpack, so no medical supplies, maps, clothes...

second: his especial kunai were nowhere to be seen. he had only an standard Konoha kunai pouch in his back.

third: he was wearing an orange Jumpsuit.

Kiiro cursed in the middle of the night. He didn't know how it happened, but he was in Naruto's body.

**END CHAPTER**

Blackmamuth laughs evilly: NASTY CLIFFHANGER MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! (actually planned to end this chapter with the end of the second exam, but when I wrote that, I couldn't help myself. I love cliffhangers too much :-)

Shinji-Higurashi,ArrowOfHikaru, ritsutsure2930,sephynarutocloud,firehedgehog,the dragonbard,skuld sentaro4, wolvesmon: thank you

animewatcher: Nope his father hasn't a bloodline... (Naruto would turn TOO powerful)

HanaTenshiHimeko: At least until the second exam is done, and maybe I won't seal her back. Playing with her is too much fun.

Arnoldstrife: For now, is comedic voice in your head.

mrasdfghj: I won't Spoil the plot, It loses half the fun!

Dragon Man 180: we shall see. I like Hinata too.

ranma hibiki: Kyuubi is a female. Ohh, I bet she would not be pleased. Naruto going to the bathroom and Kyuubi... Great Idea, I must remember that.

narutofreak360: I update when I can, really.

joekool: nice fanfic by the way.

Kitsu Maharu: Thank you... And I do that mistake a lot...


	6. sharing a body?

**FROG MASK**

_CHAPTER VI : Sharing a body?_

By Blackmamuth

"**Kyuubi speaking"**

"Kiiro speaking"

Naruto's body. He was in Naruto's body. He possessed his only son body!. But that wasn't the priority now. The real priority was now to find what happened to Naruto. Because, if he was in control of Naruto's body, Naruto had to be somewhere else.

Kiiro seated and sighed.

Naruto had just fallen asleep before he found himself in Naruto's body. Could it be possible, did they mess something while the unsealing of the seal? That was the most likely answer, and was something too frightening to contemplate.

Was Naruto in his place, in a cold cell, listening the rants of the insane Kyuubi?

Well... There could be a way to find out. He concentrated, and tried to contact Naruto. If he and Naruto just exchanged places, he should be able to contact him.

Kiiro closed his eyes and while trying not to feel like an idiot. He sent a thought in his head: 'Naruto, are you there?

"**The monkey you requested is currently unavailable, please leave a message after the signal. If I am bored enough, I might even pass it. **" And the Kyuubi made an evil overlord insane laugh (patent pending). A laugh that Kiiro guessed was to be considered the signal.

'Err, Kyuubi, is Naruto here?' Kiiro asked to the fox demon. He really didn't want him to share a cell with the demon fox. The influence the insane, egomaniacal, demon lord could have in his impressionable baby could be devastating.

"**Are you the densest simian in existence, or perhaps playing dumb? Of course the baboon is here,"**

"Uh! How is that possible?" asked a very puzzled fourth Hokage.

The demon fox smirked **"Let's see. It's time for a wonderful and invaluable lesson in basic logic, conveniently watered down so even simians like you could understand.**"

Kiiro remained silent. The Kyuubi was always sarcastic and demeaning, but her knowledge was unsurpassed. And if you managed to have her explain something ( usually feeding her infinite ego, and giving her a right to brag even more), you usually got a piece of really useful information.

"**Let's see. When the incompetent little baboon attempted to lift the seal that the snake put, he messed up. You tiny mind already grasped that. What you inexistent intellect was unable to grasp was what were the consequences of his meddling. First of all. Your seal was supposed to let the baboon tap into my power, It was not supposed to slowly merge us three into an only being Somehow, the baboon managed to alter the seal to do that. That is not a pleasant thought, indeed I do not relish forming part in a being two parts simian, one part ME, but it's the disturbing truth. Now, our three souls started to merge, which would not be so bad, if it wasn't for the fact that his meddling also changed the behavior of the seal. Now, you used your life to seal me, and designed the seal to be powered by your life force and conscious will. That's fine and noble and all those crap that you primates are so fond of, but the problem is that since your two souls are linked, he is also powering the seal now. The problem is, that since he is actually alive makes his soul the principal energy source of the seal."**

Kiiro was still absorbing the information when the bomb dropped. "WHAT, Naruto was the principal energy source of the seal!" Kiiro was panicking. Did that meant that Naruto was stuck in his old cell? No that was impossible!

"**Yes, Idiotic simian, but do not worry, as I said, your souls are linked, so the seal picks energy from your two souls instead of only yours, It has no bad side effects at all. I'm spared of that because I'm the one sealed. And about the location of your pathetic offspring, you guessed right, he is sleeping in your old cell." **Kiiro tried to interrupt here, to ask questions about the state of his son. But when he was opening his mouth to interrupt, the Kyuubi cut him

"**SILENCE DISRESPECTFUL MONKEY! DO NOT DARE INTERRUPT ME." **The Kyuubi lowered his voice, almost turning it into a soothing voice, a voice meant to calm a frightened child** "I know what are you thinking, and no, he isn't trapped in your old cell. Quite the contrary, I think that you both monkeys would be pretty happy for the outcome of the little baboon blunder. As I just said. The seal is powered by life force and conscious will, right? Good. Originally, your soul and will. But now, after that disaster, since your souls are linked, he is the primary source of the seal power, meaning, the seal takes most of its energy from his soul and will. That in itself has no consequence at all. He would not be able to feel it, and a soul is an infinite source of energy. What is the problem then?"**

"..." Kiiro remained silent. He had no idea what went wrong,

The Kyuubi sighed **"I can't believe you are unable to guess the problem. I bet the little baboon inherited your stupidity. I will be brief"**

"**1-The seal requires conscious will." **

"**2-he is now the primary source of power of the seal. "**

"**3-he went to sleep, therefore no conscious will." **

"**Consequence? You take his position as the primary source of power for the seal when he sleeps, meaning you and him switch roles. So you are in charge of his body. When he sleeps, goes to your former cell , and he won't notice because he is sleeping. When he awakens, you go back to your cell and the little baboon to his body."**

"**And this is the end of today's professor Kyuubi great lesson. I expect your homework tomorrow, class dismissed"**

Kiiro mind didn't acknowledge the parting joke of the Kyuubi after a while, he was to busy exploring the consequences of what Kyuubi said. Starting today he would be in charge of Naruto body when he would visit dreamland.

-**XXX**-

Kiiro was seated in the rock. He had just finished setting a few basic traps (The poor quality supplies Naruto had at his disposal were so few and battered it was a challenge worthy of his skill).

That was something he wondered. How was possible that a genin was unable to afford a decent quality equipment? When he explored his weapon pouch and his backpack, he was surprised to find so few and old supplies. Hell, some of his equipment was outdated when the third Hokage was a genin. Did the pay for doing D ranked missions

At least he maintained those few rusty tools in a clean and sharpened state. Well he had the basics covered. He didn't oil them, and he didn't paint them black to avoid the sun reflecting in them, and there were some rusty parts in some of his few kunais...

Well, proper care of ninja equipment was going to be a subject of his upcoming lecture. If the boy wanted to be a competent Hokage, first he had to learn to be a competent Ninja .

He had only four explosive tags, twelve shurikens (and three of them were broken!) no smoke bombs, no thread, no pills, no medical supplies... (well that one was somewhat reasonable, with the different metabolism Naruto had thanks to the Kyuubi it was likely that some pills and medicines wouldn't work with him, or have completely unexpected results, and thanks to his fast healing rate, they were rather redundant)

But what was unforgivable was the orange jumpsuit. It was like a neon sign that screamed hit me! Of course, thanks to Naruto's demonic healing and endurance drawing the enemy attacks to himself wasn't such a bad idea. What was worrying him, was why Naruto felt it was a good idea to wear such outfit, and if what he told him was true, he guessed it was to get as much attention as he could, because the boy was severely love starved.

That was something he was going to rectify. The boy would know that there were people who loved him. Even if one of them was dead and sharing his body...

Kiiro sighed. What would he do during those nights he would stay in control of Naruto body? Train? Well... He had done his good share of training, really, but only physical training would help Naruto. Chakra control and tactics would not help Naruto, only himself.

Well, if he was going to help Naruto and take care of him at night, he would have to get familiar with his body. He could already feel that his son chakra system was pretty messed up thanks to the Kyuubi. (Which was bad, he would have to relearn chakra control)

He opened a hand, and tried to form a rasengan. It didn't work. He was only able to summon a tornado-like blob of chakra, not the perfect sphere he was used to make without difficulty.

He sighed. There was a lot of training needed to catch up.

Kiiro looked at the sleeping forms of his son's teammates. They were sleeping peacefully. He didn't know them, of course, (hell, the girl hadn't been born yet when he died), but he wanted to talk to the Uchiha. His secret wife was a member of the Uchiha clan (Although the main family couldn't stand her) So Sasuke was the individual in his immediate reach most likely to knew what happened to his wife. Why she hadn't taken care of Naruto? She loved her baby dearly and there was no way in hell she wouldn't take care of him if she could. So despite how much the idea hurt him, something had happened to her.

He was going to find what was. Although he doubted Naruto would be able to extract useful information about the other boy family, after they talks and some memories he was able to access, he could conclude that interrogation and information gathering without attracting attention weren't Naruto's strengths.

Well, the boy had great potential, but his current abilities were very limited. Extremely high chakra capacity (Enough that with proper chakra control he should be able to create a katon jutsu around twelve times the size of Konoha), extremely high resistance, adequate strength and an amazing healing factor (and regeneration! it took several experienced medic nins, complicated seals, a lot of chakra, and a week long process to restore missing limbs, and the Kyuubi said if it was necessary, her chakra could help him restore an arm in less than twenty seconds!)

But there were also the minuses. His taijutsu sucked, he had no style or form to speak off, his speed was abysmal, Hell, he fought like a common thug, His success until now was that he relied on hordes of kage bunshins and his unending stamina. With a proper style, a body trained with speed and endurance, enough chakra control and coordinated tactics with his Kage bunshins, he could be deadly!

His ninjutsu was the only thing where he was semi-decent, if knowing a jounin level Jutsu and a few basic academy jutsus could be called decent.

Genjutsu... Was the harem no jutsu a Genjutsu? If not, this department was nonexistent.

Ninja Tools... Well, if the state of his tool pouch was any indication, that wasn't an area he was focusing much...

His tactics and strategy were acceptable, definitely under what a genin should have, but not under the category of a Chuunin.

Stealth... Ugh, only two words: orange jumpsuit (a huge depression was starting to form)... No, it was better not to think about that!.

And that idiot Kakashi nominated him for the chuunin exam? Kiiro would like to have a long talk with Kakashi. And Naruto had a long road ahead if he wanted to be Hokage indeed...

Kiiro opened the weapon pouch, and grabbed a Kunai and a sharpening stone. There was a long watch ahead, and he had a long night to think about the best training for his son.

-**XXX**-

The Kyuubi looked at the huge room filled with strange machinery. It looked like a 19th century factory, with several giant gears, manometers, pistons, hydraulic devices, a giant water wheel, and several other complicated devices all somehow connected.

The Kyuubi eyes were drawn to the important part. Few parts of machinery were moving, and those that were, it was at in a slow pace, everywhere she could see (she had a perfect sight and it was a huge room) was rusty and broken.

It looked like an abandoned 19th century factory.

But the really important part was a giant digital panel in the wall. A panel that read in blinking red letters:

**MIND EFFICIENCY: 16 percent**

So she was right, the boy had a potentially brilliant mind, but thanks to her demon chakra, he had been unable to reach his full potential. When she had meet the boy the first time, she was shocked to find that the son of one of smartest and strongest human that she ever meet was that stupid. And she had found the answer. She messed up. Of course, trying to help the boy inside her cell was not exactly an easy thing to do, and she managed to give him nearly endless stamina, and regeneration!. There was nothing impossible for her. But the truth was that her intervention had some unforeseen side effects.

Well, perhaps she owed him returning his mind to what it was supposed to be.

Not that she liked the boy, oh, nooo, she only wanted her container to be worthy enough for her... Well... maybe helping him in this department wouldn't damage her image, the father was a really nice simian. And the boy was adorable...

What was she thinking? Was she getting soft in her 200.000 birthday? How could she find a lowly human adorable? She was a demon! She was above those feelings!

She looked again at the broken machinery. Well she owed the boy it, after all, she was the one that broke it. And she had nothing else to do.

The Kyuubi reached a decision. That machinery was going to be repaired and returned to his former glory of 100 percent efficiency.

She remembered the smile the boy had.

She wondered if she was capable to reach at least 120 percent efficiency. Not that she would ever admit it, but she realized she liked the loud boy so she was going to give her best shot.

And several months later, his mind worked at 134 percent efficiency.

**-END CHAPTER-**

It's annoying, the percent symbol doesen't work at (Shift+5) in my keyboard... so I replaced them with the word "percent"

Sorry for the delay in updating. but when i lost a while ago my pen drive with three ! completed chapters, it was hard to find the motivation to rewrite something I already written. That and exams.


	7. Breakfast

**FROG MASK**

_CHAPTER VII: Breakfast._

By Blackmamuth

"Kyuubi speaking"

Naruto was deep in thought during his improvised breakfast consisting of roasted fish they just caught in the river. It wasn't ramen, but that wasn't what was troubling him.

It was weird, was the predominant thought in Naruto's mind. Two days ago he didn't know who his father was, he didn't know that his real name was Kuchiba Kyo, hell he didn't know he was related to Sasuke bastard. That one was the worst of the lot. Not only he was related to Mr. brooding, also, he was related to one of the worst criminals the leaf had ever seen.

Yeah, because now he knew about the Uchiha Massacre. And it wasn't thanks to Sasuke, (there was no way he would be asking any favor to the stuck up one.) no, it was thanks to Sakura, who knew everything worth knowing about the brooding Uchiha. With little effort, he was able to have Sakura give Sasuke life history.

Two words: Uchiha Massacre. So the bastard had some insignificant reason to be stuck up. Good for him. What was of relevance was that the only lead he had to find his mother (he had a mom! could you believe it? ) was gone.

Also, there was also the minor matter about having dad using his body when he had gone to sleep. The old man was pretty ashamed of it. Naruto didn't find any problem about it, really. When he slept, he wasn't using his body, right? And having him helping training, would be very welcome. He could do the dishes and laundry too.

Also, his reaction about learning about the Uchiha massacre was really odd. Wasn't he the legendary fourth hokage? He learned from the academy that he was the paradigm of what a shinobi should be. That he was capable of keeping a level head in the direst situations? And what happened when he learned about it? He'd gone nuts! He started screaming, crying, and sobbing. He was still suffering from a huge headache consequence of his breakdown.

Well, He would have liked knowing grandpa. From his dad histories, he seemed rather nice. But with his luck, had he survived, he would be one of those who stared at him with disgust, or even worse, with open hate.

Well. In retrospect, he was better than two days ago. Now he had a ghost father, who would help him train. Naruto smiled: trained personally from the legendary fourth Hokage. Beat that Sasuke-bastard!.

Naruto wondered where his father had gone. After learning about the fate of the Uchiha clan, (and having that breakdown) he could not feel his presence anymore.

Naruto sighed inwardly. It wasn't important. After all, he couldn't go anywhere, right? So he'd come back for a chat sooner or later. He should concentrate on the current exam. Sakura was talking about the scrolls, and the fact that they had only one scroll.

-**XXX**-

Kiiro was pacing in those bright rooms without a destination in mind. He still felt too shocked. The Uchiha clan was all except one young boy gone.

He was recalling their faces in his mind again and again. Especially his wife family. A little family that was too kind to adopt him as one of them. His early relation with them was a professional one. He was entrusted with the responsibility to guide Uchiha Obito in his first steps as a Ninja.

The day he visited them for information about the Sharingan, and what he should do to help him awaken it was the day that he met his adoptive family, the start of the friendship that he had with the wonderful woman that would eventually become his wife (he didn't knew then that she was a woman, since her family helped her masquerading as a man to avoid the sterility seal that the main House of the Uchiha's forced in every woman to avoid their bloodline escaping their control.) He got to know them in the short years passed being Obito instructor and helping him become an excellent Ninja. A task that seemed impossible due to the pressure of the main family to have Obito resign as a Ninja, due to his inability to awaken the Sharingan. But Obito family was supportive of him, and defied the main family orders. He defied them too, he was sure Obito would awaken the Sharingan, he was too stubborn to back up. He smiled inwardly. Naruto shared that trait with his Uncle, he was also too stubborn to back up.

And then Obito fell in combat. No one of them did blame him for it. But he had blamed himself. His future father-in-law, Uchiha Yasutani, was the one that made him see the truth. He was not responsible for Obito's choices, he was powerful, but not infallible. And Obito finally accomplished his lifelong quest, he proved everyone he could be an excellent ninja, and awakened the Sharingan.

That man was something else entirely. If someone asked for a role model, he would have thought of Uchiha Yasutani first.(He respected Jiraya sensei, but he was a pervert!) The man was in his early fifties and he was the youngest brother of the current Uchiha clan head (Sasuke's Grandfather). That made him the leader of the branch house of the Uchiha clan. Although his relationship with his brother was awful, because his older brother was a firm enforcer of the clan rules, regulations and traditions that eventually drove his twin sister to an early death, (she killed herself because she couldn't have a family thanks to the infertility seal; there weren't much people that wanted to be tied to someone who was unable to give birth to a new life). If that wasn't enough, there was also the conflict the brothers had about Obito.

Yasutani fought all his life without success for a change in the clan policy that would give Uchiha women the freedom to form a family. He even told everyone that his daughter Mako (Kiiro future wife, and Naruto's mother) was a boy so she could have a chance to form a family of her own. A treason to the Uchiha clan that if found, would mean immediate death for him.

It was so sad. If the Kyuubi attacked only a month later, with his authority as hokage (he was the hokage for only a week, he didn't have enough time to do any serious reforms) he would have forced the Uchiha clan to change it's ways and Yasutani lifelong wish would have been granted.

Kiiro sighed inwardly. He had wondered shortly after Naruto recalled his life what would have happened if he and Mako didn't plan to surprise Yasutani and told the wise old man about their secret marriage, and upcoming son. Now he had the answer. Naruto would have grown with a loving family, and eventually he would be brutally murdered by Uchiha Itachi. A murderer he remembered as the little four years old that was always hanging with Shisui, the youngest son of the family.

He really didn't know Shisui very much. At the time Shisui was born, he was training to become the fourth Hokage under Sarutobi himself, while still doing his duty as one of the village top Jounins. Although his secret girlfriend and future wife loved Shisui to death and was always talking about the little baby in the family.

And they were all gone. All of them. People he called family, people he called friends.

There would be more bad news? After Tsunade-hime disappeared mysteriously, Orochimaru betrayed the leaf, losing a third of Konoha Shinobi to the Kyuubi, his own death included... Konoha's power was greatly reduced.

Kiiro continued to pace restlessly. He entered without paying attention a room filled with machinery and loud metal noises, there was a giant digital panel in the wall, which read:

**MIND EFFICIENCY: 18 percent**

And a booming voice greeted him. "**OHHH! THE INSIGNIFICANT SIMIAN HAD SOMEHOW FOUND HIS WAY HERE, WELCOME TO THE PRESENCE OF THE GREATEST OF ALL YOUKAI. MAKE IT QUICK, BECAUSE I HAVE A LOT OF WORK AHEAD!**"

"Huh?" was Kiiro intelligent reply. The Kyuubi was near a big cluster of gears, doing something with a giant monkey wrench, while four of her tails were preventing a piston to move. It did look dangerous indeed. But what was the Kyuubi doing? He stared for a short moment, and then asked: "What are you doing?"

"**ARE YOU STUPID, SIMIAN? CAN'T YOU SEE HOW BUSY I AM? THIS IS A VERY DIFFICULT AND PRECISE TASK, ONE MINOR MISTAKE COULD HAVE TERRIBLE CONSEQUENCES THAT COULD TAKE WEEKS TO REPAIR."**

Kiiro wasn't worried about the Kyuubi tinkering with something in his son's body. In her words. she had no interest in possessing an inferior simian body, and she wanted Naruto to be the strongest possible. After all, the boy was the container of the Greatest Youkai, He had to be strong. The Kyuubi would not stand being second to anyone.

The fourth hokage shook his head, and waited. In those long years he shared imprisonment with the Kyuubi, he learned that she loved bragging, showing off, and using the knowledge she accumulated during her long life to show him that she was superior to him, the little simian who had the huge luck to seal her. It was only matter of time she explained what she was doing here.

-**XXX**-

Naruto was pouting, He had just told Sakura his great plan to cheat in the Chuunin exams (Although he had a feeling it was a bad idea, they were running short of options: they were nearly out of time, Sasuke was still very weak (he tried to hide it, but he could see it), Sakura Ninja skills were still inexistent, and he was feeling weak from the unsealing ritual),So he had told his plan to Sakura, and tried to open the earth scroll but that Kabuto guy from the written exam had appeared from nowhere, and prevented him from opening it.

'Were did the guy come from? Dad assured that no mere genin would be able to enter our campsite without triggering one of his traps? Is the guy that good?' Naruto thought.

While Naruto was thinking about it (and ignoring the lecture Glasses-guy was giving about that if you opened the scroll you would be stuck in an hypnosis Jutsu), Sasuke returned from his quest for water, and confronted Kabuto about his motives.

Sasuke said that if he wanted to steal their earth scroll, he would have done it already. So he had a different intention. Naruto said nothing but noted the hidden insult. He was skilled enough to protect their scroll. Thank you very much!

Sasuke asked glasses-guy if he needed the earth scroll like them. And glasses-guy showed a set of scrolls! Was he stupid? The guy knew they needed a heaven scroll! Naruto moved his head sideways to the right, adopting his clueless expression while he evaluated the situation. The guy was alone with a set of scrolls. They were three to one...

Naruto decided against it. Glasses-guy was a leaf nin like them, managed to pass through his father traps, and helped them avoiding a critical mistake. Add to that that he was not afraid to show them his scrolls. Glasses-guy was bluffing, or he was a powerful comrade... Better not antagonize him.

Glasses-guy was leaving when Sasuke challenged him to a fight for his scrolls... Well, they were really desperate, but Sasuke was wrong in his methods; with his experience as a prankster, he knew that if they wanted to play dirty, they should have attacked with no warning. Not that he approved about attacking a fellow leaf nin.

Naruto was going to protest about it, when he felt it, a minor pull to his middle finger in his left hand. Someone had triggered a warning trap; Someone was watching them.

**-XXX-**

The Kyuubi closed the panel she was working in, and approached where the fourth Hokage was waiting. She knew that he wanted to know what she was doing here. Well, she wasn't planning to keep it secret. Hell, he could help in the repairs too.

"**So, what brings the insufferable simian to my magnificent presence**" she asked

"I was wandering around, doing nothing of interest, when I found myself here, by the way, what are you doing here?"

And there it was, the question. Well, she would tell him, not without adding some cutting remarks in there. A girl needed her fun.

"**Well, If you used your inferior eyes, looked to the wall, and managed to use your useless brain to deduce the truth, you would already know; you would have seen that we are inside your son mind, in the hardware department to be more precise**"

Wasn't she great? she didn't answer exactly his question, provided helpful information and managed to irritate him in the process... Kyuubi 1- human 0

The former Hokage crossed his arms, and glared at her, clearly annoyed at her. "that doesn't explain what you were doing here"

"**Did you look at the panel in the wall, Idiotic baboon? the part where says that the macaque mind efficiency is at a mere 18 percent? I was fixing that.**"

"Aren't you the greatest of all Youkais? why are you lowering yourself doing that?"

Ouch, Kyuubi 1- annoying human 1

"**FOOLISH BABOON, DO YOU THINK I LIKE BEING STUCK IN THE CLUMSIEST, DUMBEST, WEAKEST MACAQUE IN EXISTENCE? IF I WILL LOWER MYSELF TO BE STUCK INSIDE A STUPID HUMAN, I WANT IT TO BE A DECENT ONE"**

Phew, great save!

Kyuubi 2 – Urchin head 1

The human was covering his ears due to her exceptional volume, Excellent, was that worth another point? perhaps

The human asked "So how that Naruto's mind is only working at 18 percent efficiency?"

Ohh, great question!

Kyuubi 2 - Smart human 2

"**that, foolish human, is due to the macaque inability to fully integrate and use the incredible power my exquisite presence provides. His weak and insignificant brain was unable to integrate my demon chakra to his system, even worse, his brain clumsy attempts damaged it to the sad state in front of you **"

she avoided the blame for it, excellent:

Great Kyuubi 3 – Baboon 2

"Are you saying that your chakra damaged Naruto's brain?" The former hokage asked, obviously upset about it. The Kyuubi chuckled. The human was hyperventilating, but he managed to place the blame where it rightfully belonged

Magnificent Me 3- Hyperventilating simian 3

"**YES, idiotic simian, my chakra was a factor for the sorry state of the simian mind. Are you happy?"**

Damnit, she fell into his trap!;

Kyuubi 3 – Infuriating blonde 4

The simian seemed to think about her statements, and asked the following **"**when you finish with it, he would be a super-Genius then?**"**

"**Not exactly; His efficiency is lower than normal because his brain is unable to control the improved body he has thanks to my great presence, not because he is stupider than normal. He can't control things like the regeneration, the stamina, his chakra control is really bad, he is physically unable to do a normal bunshin, he is also incapable to do genjutsu, his pulse for throwing weapons is really messed up, his reflexes are crap, hell, his brain is incapable to wake his bloodline limit too! fixing all of those problems will take long, and bump his mind around 80 percent efficiency. Then, I would work with his meager IQ, It will improve too, but not to the level of super-Genius**"

Ha! Excellent explanation. Point for the Kyuubi.

Kyuubi 4 – Dumbstruck fool 4

"So, are you saying that he was incapable to control his body properly, and when you finish with him, he would more powerful, and smarter? " was the question the amazed simian made.

"**WEREN'T YOU LISTENING? YES, FOOLISH SIMIAN! AND NOW LEAVE ME TO WORK IN PEACE! I NEED SILENCE FOR THIS DELICATE TASK, AND YOUR SIMIAN STENCH MAKES ME SICK**"

Kyuubi 5- defeated simian 4; Game, set and match for the Kyuubi.

She grinned. She saw the baboon stand up leaving still overwhelmed with her wisdom. She loved doing that. Well, fun was over, she had a lot of work if she wanted to fix the little macaque.

**-END CHAPTER-**

Authors note: I read all your reviews, thank you! Although, I will not reply them in this chapter, too many of them... If you need a reply, say it in the review, and I will reply you in the next chapter, Thank you.

Also, the votes for a possible pairing are now closed.

And, yes, the kyuubi is a she, when you read otherwise, It's one of my numerous mistakes.


	8. The Earth Scroll

**FROG MASK**

_CHAPTER VIII: _

By Blackmamuth

"Kyuubi speaking"

One of the warning traps had just triggered and that meant that someone or something was watching them. Naruto's mind was running at top speed trying to find a possible path of action. The lessons in the academy said that if there is enough time, is always better to read the situation, and the words Kakashi sensei always repeated came to his mind. "_Reading underneath of the underneath_". What had just happened there? It was too strange to be a coincidence that just after that glasses-guy appeared, something triggered a warning trap. It was one of glasses-guy teammates perhaps? Maybe those scrolls were false, (like the one he wanted to make) and his teammates would attack when they were unsuspecting?

But that made no sense. If glasses guy managed to pass through his father traps, wouldn't he have warned his teammates? Was he truly alone, and he engineered triggering the traps in a delayed fashion? Unlikely, but it was possible.

What was more likely would be that glasses guy was being followed. If his story was true, he was alone and with two scrolls. He was a perfect target. Suddenly finding yourself alone, what would be a wise move? Find one of your own village team, and travel with them. Especially if you had an enemy team after you.

Naruto looked at Glasses guy, trying to size him. The traps he was able to avoid were telling him that he was no average Genin.

Well, there was also the possibility that the fire had given away their position Because Sakura had outright refused to eat her fish raw, and Sasuke was still too weak to argue with her. (And if you are Sasuke, you try not to attract Sakura attention more than necessary). And well, to be truthful, he also didn't like raw fish. He knew what a shinobi should have eaten it raw to avoid detection, but his stomach overpowered him.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. He yearned to fight, and the quickest way to do it, was to broadcast their position with the fire. With the traps all around, it could be a very efficient trap.

It was a shame that he had not thought until now about having three Kage bunshins in henge taking their place. Why were the really good ideas coming late?

But the immediate problem was that someone was watching. Close, but not to close to trigger the most powerful explosive tags. Dad had to economize and place them strategically, because Naruto had too few. He told his dad it wasn't his fault that the mean lady at the civilian ninja supply shop was charging him thrice than normal because he was the vessel of the Kyuubi (She hadn't said it out loud, but Naruto wasn't THAT stupid). At least she sold to him actual usable equipment, unlike other shops. Especially the lone weapon shop that would actually sell to him. The man only sold him the worst kunai and shuriken imaginable at exorbitant prices.

How he wished he'd made to chuunin in this exam. Then, he would be allowed to go to REAL shinobi shops, not the crappy ones led by civilians that mainly only sold to short funded genins or clients of the leaf (well, almost every civilian and possible client who entered the ninja village was in trouble enough to hire a ninja usually wanted some means of self protection, mainly to feel safe, not only towards his problems, also because a hidden village was filled with highly trained and skilled ninjas that could kill them in mere seconds. That unnerved most people. In truth, it was really stupid. Why would Konoha attack its clients or allow them to be attacked in the village? Shinobi weren't stupid)

It was so unfair, really. The real high quality equipment usually were crafted by ninjas or master blacksmith (usually both) and the actual process to craft such high quality weaponry was a village secret. So to avoid losing them to rival villages or missing nin's, only chuunin or higher ranked ninjas were given permission to buy them. (Not that it worked. Usually, If a Genin really needed something only available there, the parents bought them)

Well, to be honest, the civilian shops also sold decent equipment, but almost all of them loathed him and refused to even sell anything to him. He really didn't blame them, Civilians usually didn't have the shinobi mindset and acceptance of the loss of a loved one, and the wounds open twelve years ago were still fresh.

'Huh? what I'm thinking about? Concentrate damnit!' Naruto smacked himself. He was not thinking straight, he had to reach a decision about what to do about their stalker and not wonder when he was going to get decent equipment at a Ninja only equipment shop.

He knew that looking around, would give away that he detected him, so that was not an option. He studied the reflections in the river, and into that Kabuto guy glasses, he was lucky that he was in the appropriate angle to see the spot their eavesdropper was.

What he didn't see, was Kabuto raising an eyebrow at him. Kabuto had thought that the responsible for the traps around their camp was Sasuke, the one Orochimaru wanted. But when that pitiful mist genin who was following him approached, the one to get warned by the warning traps so cleverly hidden was the dead last Naruto. A genin that if the academy records he managed to access weren't lying, was totally clueless around traps.

Well, Kabuto would have to watch carefully the Kyuubi vessel too. Why Orochimaru overlooked the host of the Kyuubi was something Kabuto did understand. According to his data, the seal the fourth hokage placed on him was more for containment purposes than for giving the boy ability to control the demon's power. Well, Kabuto wasn't going to complain, after his evaluation of him, the boy was extremely loyal to the leaf, and the last they wanted was someone who controlled the power of a demon nine times stronger than the one Gaara of the sand had as their enemy.

**-XXX-**

Naruto returned the attention to the actual quarrel between Sasuke and glasses-guy. Sakura had just managed to disable their verbal fight, just after Kabuto said that Sasuke didn't really want to fight him for his scrolls, because if he was really going to attack a comrade, he would have attacked without warning.

Well, Naruto knew that Sasuke was bluffing. He was in no state for a one to one fight like he suggested, and he knew that he would rather die than ask Naruto do the real work for him.

Glasses guy, said that it was alright, and that they had to get going, because they were an easy target for other groups because of the smoke and fish smell. Naruto said nothing. Sasuke nodded, and hastily recovered their equipment. but he wondered if glasses guy said that because he knew there was a team tailing him.

**-XXX-**

The group was to the tower, while talking with Kabuto.

-"There are still groups left?" Sasuke asked to Kabuto

-"yeah, I'm absolutely sure of that. Think about it, And you'll see I'm right. Do you know what the best battle tactic is the last day in the exam? especially if the final objective is arrive to the tower in the center of the forest?"

-"An ambush! We have to ambush the teams that have the two scrolls that are going to the tower!" Sakura shouted.

-"you have one of three right" Kabuto paused, "you aren't the only ones in the same situation, there would be more teams that are already there and have trapped the area"

-"I GET IT! There are enemies waiting, LOTS OF THEM, GREAT, I LOVE CHALLENGES" Naruto shouted, The rest sweatdropped.

-"Kabuto san, what is the last possibility?" Sakura asked, while ignoring Naruto Outburst.

-"The collectors, ninjas who are above average, who attack every team they find to lessen the competition, that way; they usually have a good number of scrolls. Even after they have the scrolls to pass the exam, they wait to the last moment to rest and get rid of the competition to finish the exam. They usually give their extra scrolls to their village comrades." Kabuto paused to give his speech a more dramatic feeling. "They are exceptional warriors, with high ambition. The worst threat"

Sasuke smirked, "I see... I now know why you stopped to talk to us. You are also afraid of them"

Kabuto smiled at them, and gave an affirmative nod.

Naruto said nothing, but he was still very aware that there was something trailing them. the plan had just started, and only waiting was left.

**-XXX-**

They were now walking slowly, trying not to be too loud, in the general direction of the tower. It was several hours after the encounter with that giant bug, And surprisingly enough they found it again. The corpse of the bug. The bug Naruto killed several hours ago. They were in the same location they started.

Kabuto pushed his glasses into position, While Sasuke told everyone the obvious fact that they were trapped in a Genjutsu, A genjutsu that made they walk in circles for hours.

Kabuto said that their purpose was to tire them out, so they were easier targets. He said that since they were pretty tired, they would show themselves soon.

And they did, Several guys dressed in black, with a respirator and mist forehead protector appeared in front of them.

The black copies surrounded them, and one voice, taunted them saying that they had no escape.

Naruto would not take that, and immediately attacked the shadow in front of him, that dissolved after his strong punch.

Everyone in the group was surprised, especially after the illusion (because it was an illusion) reshaped itself in few seconds.

Sasuke tried to activate his sharingan, in hope that the ability of the sharingan to see through weak genjutsu would be enough to win the day. If he was capable of seeing the real ones, The fight was theirs. But his attempt failed, because a pain he never felt before started where the strange mark Orochimaru gave him was, and enveloped all his body.

Even after he kneeled due to the pain, he was able to throw a pair of shurikens to a shadow that was going to attack Naruto in the back.

The shadow dissolved after sending a kunai towards Sasuke, who was unable to dodge because he was paralyzed due to the seal Orochimaru gave him. Sasuke had to be pushed aside at the last second from Kabuto, who took the kunai in his arm.

Naruto hadn't seen where the kunai had come from, these guys skill had no openings, and they timed the throw perfectly right, so no one from their group was able to tell where the real ones were. Naruto wasn't exactly worried about it. If his plan worked, soon, they would be defeated, especially since those guys were supposed to be genjutsu experts, and usually, experts in an area sucked badly in another. Genjutsu experts were traditionally known to be weak at taijutsu.

But that was not really the main problem. The problem was that if the boss plan was going to work it required that he couldn't be touched by the enemy.

Naruto looked around, evaluating the clones. Were some of them not illusions? He knew the real ones (the ones that send the kunai that wounded Glasses guy) weren't necessarily present there (especially since usually genjutsu specialists were weak at taijutsu, so they would want to avoid being in the front lines), but he couldn't be sure.

Sasuke, who thanks to his sharingan was able to see through the illusion, confirmed Naruto's unsaid suspicions when shouted "It's Useless, All of them are an illusion! GET OUT!"

Sakura interjected doubting Sasuke's affirmation "But... Kabuto's wound is real..."

Naruto tried to suppress rolling his eyes. Sakura was stating the obvious, how she had passed the academy exam was a real mystery to Naruto (And they failed him? there was no justice in Konoha!). Of course the wound was real; genin level Genjutsu was nowhere as good to really alter their perceptions like that. Hell, those guys weren't that good, really, if he learned someday to make a decent bunshin (he was still unable to make one!), he could replicate it. (Well, the real tricky part would be synchronizing yourself with the bunshin, and fool your enemies long enough to be caught in the trap.) Add a few Kage bunshins into the mix, and he would have a better version of it. Not that it really mattered, Thanks to fuzzy and his chakra, he could do it with Kage bunshins easily, and he could forget about the synchronizing part.

Naruto ignored Kabuto explaining to Sakura the fact that they were using the bunshins to cover their real position and confuse them. He had already deduced it.

Naruto parried a pair of kunai with one of his. Avoiding was out of the question if he had to help the boss track their position. If he avoided them, the boss couldn't know which ones were real, and which was illusion, therefore he had to parry all of them while avoiding being hit.

Naruto made a handseal, and three Kage bunshins appeared in around him. It exhausted him, but that way, even if all of them got hit, the boss would get to find four more real kunai between the false Kunai parts of the illusion. How much more to wait before it was over?

It took fifteen minutes, but there was only one Naruto remaining again in front of those illusions, And then, a kunai he hadn't seen, reached his back. The Naruto in the clearing wasn't fast enough to react to Sakura's warning and got hit in the back.

And the last Naruto kage bunshin poofed away. Sasuke and Sakura opened their mouth, dumbfounded. Where was the real one, then? They were still shocked by the disappearance of all the Naruto's in the clearing, that they barely registered three different screams in the forest. A horde of Kage Bunshins appeared shortly thereafter, carrying three unconscious Mist Nins.

Kabuto, with a smile pushed his glasses into position. That kid wasn't that bad. The boy detected their attackers hours ago with his traps, had found a good occasion to slip away undetected, and replaced himself with a Kage bunshin (of course, he wasn't fooled, after all, the boy was still a genin), while following them several meters away, Avoiding detection from his teammates and their attackers, silently searching for their enemy. To be honest, the fact that he took hours to finally find the mist nins (and only after nearly half an hour of being under attack) was really disappointing, The boy had a lot of holes in his technique, his stealth sucked, he had been aware of his position the entire time, but he could see the potential. With that enormous chakra, he could become a real powerhouse.

What really was interesting was Sasuke. He could understand why Orochimaru was interested in him. Sasuke was strong enough to stand up and fight two days after receiving a cursed seal? Impressive. His skill with the sharingan, one of the strongest bloodlines in the leaf, able to copy jutsus in his strongest form was an added bonus. Being able to activate it while having the heaven seal disrupting your chakra system was a feat in itself. The boy accuracy and analysis were also good. The fact that he managed to land a hit to Orochimaru-sama was something he would not expect from a mere Genin.

And the girl was the worst ninja he had ever seen in all his chuunin exams. How her jounin instructor nominated her to take the exam was something he could only justify because the two boys needed a third teammate. Yes, she knew the basic jutsus, a lot of theory and above average chakra control, but that was all she knew. Her skills as a front line kuonichi were laughable. Her taijutsu sucked, her ninjutusu and genjutsu were nonexistent.

Kabuto reflections were interrupted with the loud shout of Naruto, telling everybody miles around, that they now had the heaven scroll. Kabuto rolled his eyes. Naruto had potential, but he had a long way to go.

**-END CHAPTER-**

**Author Notes: **And that way, we reach the end of the second exam. I have now a question about the eliminatory round that is coming. I believe that I will skip writing the fights themselves. The outcome would be the same as the manga, not only would be repetitive, and also boring, therefore, I'm asking your opinions about it, because I'm planning not doing it, and only have Naruto discuss the fights with his father.

If it isn't clear enough in the history, the boss the Naruto kagebunshin is talking about is the real Naruto that is hiding trying to find their stalkers

Thank you for your reviews, I read and love all of them, but please excuse me if I do not reply them in the fic itself like other chapters. As I said in the last chapter, if you have some question that you want answered in the next chapter, say it in the review, and I will try to answer it to the best of my ability.


	9. Preliminary I

**FROG MASK**

_CHAPTER IX: _

By Blackmamuth

"Kyuubi speaking"

Naruto pouted. He was purposely ignoring the lecture his dad was giving about the importance of tracking and stealth, and that he needed to improve dramatically in those areas. It wasn't true. He didn't suck at it! Did Sasuke bastard detect him trailing the mist team? Did Sakura-chan detect him? Did the mist genin team detect him? A 'No' was the answer to all three questions. What was the problem then?

Kiiro pointed that Sasuke was so exhausted that he wasn't paying much attention at his surroundings, Sakura was fawning over Sasuke even more than the usual, (they did not know about the cursed seal) and the mist team was so busy tailing them while remaining hidden to really search for another shinobi.

But the worst part was about his nonexistent tracking skills. He took hours to find them, a feat that even Sakura would do in less time.

Naruto shivered at the proposed training regime his dad was proposing to correct those weak points. He was going to sneak into forbidden area number nineteen (a forest in the outskirts of Kenosha, heavily trapped), he was supposed to go there, find and disarm every trap (tracking), while hiding from his own kage bunshins, and hunting them at the same time. In short it was like the second test of the chuunin exam, adding the fact that he should survive the traps, disarm them all, and "kill" all his Kage bunshins without being seen at all.

It would be a feat in itself, especially because the Kage bunshins had the same techniques and skills as him.

Naruto sighed. He was so tired of lectures already. First that, and then the fact that he learned that opening the scroll meant immediate disqualification. How stupid was he? That piece of news was enough to darken his mood considerably. Only the presence of Iruka-sensei returned the smile to his face. Then he explained the poem in the wall, basically saying that you must work to overcome your shortcomings. That poem was a nasty reminder about his future trip to forbidden area nineteen.

And then Iruka said to take it Easy, he was worried about him! That was enough! He needed training, true, but he was not in the academy anymore! He grabbed his forehead protector, and shouted.

"I'M NOT AN ACADEMY STUDENT! Iruka-sensei! there is no need to worry! Maybe I'm still Loud, BUT I'M NOT A KID ANYMORE! "

Silence made his appearance after the last Naruto outburst, Naruto's face regained his ever present smile for a few seconds, and he then added the undeniable truth: "I'M A NINJA!"

**-XXX-**

Kiiro was looking through the eyes of his son the teams that passed the second test of the chuunin exam. Four leaf teams, a sound team, and a sand team. More than usual this late in the exam, but the abundance of leaf teams was normal. After all, every genin who wasn't a rookie was allowed to enter a chuunin exam in his home country. A rookie genin of the leaf needed a jounin recommendation. That wasn't the same for foreign teams. For a foreign team to enter a chuunin exam in a foreign country, their village needed an invitation to it. And traditionally, Villages gave very few of them. It wasn't unusual to only have a single team from a village, if the sponsor of the chuunin exam only gave them one invitation.

Usually rival villages sent their best genin to compensate for the lack of invitations they got. So they usually ended in the last exam.

It was surprising that all the rookies passed the second exam. But looking at them he could see why they were there. There was a team with the Ino-shika-cho, the legendary teamwork. Kiiro sighed, if the next part was what he expected, one on one fights, the advantages they had in their superb teamwork that led them here would be nullified.

The second leaf team was a team with a Hyuuga, an Aburame, and an Inuzuka. It was not surprising those three passed the second test. The three clans were the best Kenosha had to offer in relation to scouting, tracking and operating in unknown terrain.

The third team had another Hyuuga, a clone of Maito Gai (Bowl cuts and green spandex... Ouch!)And the last member was a pretty girl. He didn't know of her clan at first glance. Maybe she was a weapon specialist? The scrolls she was carrying around hinted about it, also, there was the fact that Hyuuga's and Mini-Gai were obviously taijutsu specialists, so a long range weapon specialist made sense.

There was also Naruto's team. Of all the teams, it was the most unbalanced. An Uchiha (two, but they did not know about Naruto). Uchiha's were traditionally genjutsu/ninjutsu specialists, Naruto was a mix of taijutsu (Regeneration and endless stamina) and ninjutsu specialist (Nearly endless chakra), but he didn't excel that much in those areas, and then, Sakura... Well, maybe moral support.

The last leaf team was an incognita in itself. He wasn't present at Kabuto's meeting with Naruto in the forest because he was still digesting the horrible fate the Uchiha clan had, but for what he had been told, he was able to pass his traps like they weren't there. That meant that he was an experienced tracker, in that area he was at least upper chuunin level.

His two companions where an incognita too. They had no clan symbol anywhere and had their faces covered. It was a good strategy to hide your skills, a strategy that obviously succeeded.

The Sound team was interesting. They had one member badly injured, and the other two were not that fresh. Naruto didn't exactly know what happened either, but what he was able to find indicated that it took the combined might of the Ino-Shika-Cho, Mini-Gai and Sasuke to defeat them. The good part was they did know their jutsu, but the sound team could still have a pair of aces under their sleeve.

And the last team was the sand team. A team that had an obvious fan user, and a puppet user (Why the puppeteer didn't have his puppet sealed in a scroll was interesting in itself. Did the boy suck at sealing perhaps?). Those two practiced traditional sand village styles. But the most enigmatic was the short redhead. He had a strange aura, he radiated killer intent.

It was going to be an interesting exam.

**-XXX-**

Mitsarashi Anko commanded the attention of the tired genin in the room.

"Hokage-Sama will now explain the third test, please, listen carefully!"

The old man took his pipe, and proceeded to explain that the chuunin exams had an ulterior motive; they simulated war and acted as advertisement at the same time. In the last part of the exam, important personalities and country leaders were invited to show everyone the strength of your hidden village. That was a way hidden villages gained or lost clients and influence.

Inuzuka Kiba asked rudely why they had to risk their lives in an advertisement. The Hokage answer was that only in life-risking battles Shinobi's showed their true strength. And the strength of the shinobi was the power of a village.

The old man was going to explain the rules of the third test, when the referee appeared. Gekyou Hayate. The man requested to explain the rules himself instead, and the Hokage let him.

But before he explained it, he shocked everyone saying that there was going to be a preliminary, because they were limited in time, and they could not have the guests wait too much.

The sickly jounin asked if someone wanted to give up, because the preliminary was going to take place right away.

Naruto was startled, but there was nothing that would make him abandon, he promised to do his best.

Naruto wondered if the injured sound guy with the hollow hands was going to quit, but there was someone else who gave up. Someone he never expected: Kabuto-san.

Naruto couldn't believe it. Kabuto-san was quitting? Why? Naruto tried to restrain showing his disappointment, in his mind, quitting was the same as being a coward, even thought that when asked, Kabuto said that he was unable to hear from his left ear, and he wasn't very confident he was able to pass a life risking exam.

The referee asked Kabuto's name, and crossed it from his list. He stated that quitting was not going to affect one's teammates, because from now on, the exam was individual.

In a corner of the room, two members of the Ino-Shika-Cho team grimaced, and the third muttered "this is troublesome..."

**-XXX-**

Kiiro was worried, but for a reason. He had just overhead (thanks to Naruto's keen hearing) Sandaime and Anko saying that the boy had quit six times already. His academy record wasn't impressive, but the important piece of information was that Kabuto was the child of dead enemy shinobi. An orphaned child brought to Konoha by a medical jounin, in the battle of bellflower pass.

Bellflower pass? It was nearly at the end of the war against rock and thunder, a desperate effort from the enemy to hold that position to stop shinobi entering rock country mainland. The leaf and a team of the grass stormed the fort protecting bellflower pass. It was a massacre. Bellflower fort was a wooden fort. And the leaf specialized in fire jutsu.

It was a shame that there were civilians along with ninja in the fort. It was war, and they had to march across bellflower pass to get into rock country proper.

Why did the boy quit six times in a row when it was obvious he had the skills to pass the exam? It made no sense. If he was still Hokage, he would assign someone to watch him, something he was sure Sarutobi would do.

Kabuto whispered something to his teammate, and started walking towards the exit, not without waving Naruto Goodbye.

If someone could have seen his face when he was slowly walking to the exit, that someone would see that he was experiencing a sadistic pleasure while leaving.

**-XXX-**

Sasuke grabbed his shoulder and groaned. The waves of pain were nearly unbearable; he bit his tongue, hoping that the pain in there surpassed the one from the mark.

When Sakura heard the part about quitting, Sakura reminded him of the mark, suggesting that he took in that opportunity. The pain, like a macabre joke, intensified.

And her suggestion reached outrageous proportions. She said that he was in no shape to fight, and begged him to quit. Tears fell from her eyes, and stated that he was acting strange since then.

Hah! He would like to see her with her body feeling like liquid fire, and acting normal.

He tried to stop her pestering him. He uttered a cold "shut up" willing her to spare him her tears.

She ignored it. She continued rambling about that he didn't fool her, and that he had been hiding his pain since then.

Sasuke tried a "be quiet", but without success either.

And then she told him that she was going to tell sensei about it. It was enough. He tried to be polite about it, but she was unable to be rational. He grabbed her hand (an action that succeeded in shutting her up)

He looked into her eyes, and tried to use his coldest tone on her. "Shut up about this mark".

Sakura's tears fell for a few seconds, while Sakura tried to regain her composure. It wasn't enough. She continued pestering him.

"Why are you so stubborn! I don't want to see you suffering anymore. To me you are..."

Wasn't he clear enough? "This has nothing to do with you." "Stay out of my business"

He challenged her with his gaze, engaging her into a silent battle of wills. No one was going to force him out of the exam.

Sakura lowered her gaze after a few seconds, defeated. Her face was radiating sadness.

Sasuke felt a pang of guilt. It was not her fault. He decided to explain his motives.

"I'm an avenger." Yes, he was going to kill that bastard. "I don't care about being a chuunin. I only want to fight strong guys." Sasuke looked at Sakura's eyes, to show he was serious. "I won't forgive you, if you take that from me"

Naruto jumped into the argument, defending Sakura, when he looked at him, Sasuke couldn't control himself. He was also a strong guy. He said it without thinking. "I also want to fight you..."

Naruto opened his eyes wide, speechless. The unthinkable happened. Sasuke had just acknowledged his strength.

Kiiro was uneasy. Sasuke's attitude reminded him of a lot of excellent shinobi that went down a dark path. Revenge no matter what was something that gave no real satisfaction in the end, and the primary cause of the creation of a missing nin, some of them, created more damage in their wake than the objective of their ire. He decided to not voice his concerns to Naruto. The boy was someone Naruto acknowledged as a friend, and he did not want to hurt his feelings... He wasn't ready yet.

And that mark... Before he left, Orochimaru had begun a macabre set of experiments, ending with a series of test in his own team. A team that died in strange circumstances, their bodies strangely mutated. Only the girl in his team survived, and she passed three months in a coma-like state. The few he knew about that seal was that somehow when activated it released enormous amounts of chakra, killer intent, and twisted the victims into some kind of blood hungry psycho, while eating the user's body slowly.

He wasn't telling Naruto about that either.

-XXX-

**_First match: Uchiha Sasuke vs. Akado Yoroi_**

Kakashi said something to Sasuke. 'Probably it was something about the cursed seal'. Kiiro thought. Why they didn't stop the match was something he couldn't comprehend. Were they afraid to upset Sasuke and losing the sharingan for good? Highly unlikely. There was something he did not know in the Hokage's hands.

The match was interesting in itself. The Uchiha boy was under the severe pain, and he was unable to use chakra. At first he played a dodging game with his rival, and managed to immobilize him. That suited Yoroi, Because Yoroi drained chakra with his hands.

He and Naruto had a private laugh about him trying to drain Naruto's and getting Fuzzy's chakra instead. Talk about indigestion.

When Sasuke looked finished, Naruto couldn't bear it. He shouted at him an insulting remark. He asked if that was the limit of his abilities. Well, it helped him, but not in the way Naruto thought. When Sasuke looked at the spectator's, he saw Lee and was reminded of his fight with him. A fight Sasuke used his sharingan.

He used the opening move of the lotus, to surprise his opponent, and finished it with his weaker version. Not that he could have used the original technique, because Gai had stopped their match before Lee finished using it.

There was a tense moment where it seemed the cursed seal was going to activate, but he managed to control it.

Naruto shouted a "YES" when Sasuke was declared the winner, but Kiiro stopped his ramblings, when he shouted in his head. "Naruto, quick! theoretical exercise, What would have you done against Yoroi?"

Naruto's thought for a moment. "Overwhelm him with Kage bunshins?" He ventured into his mind.

And his father response was a solid "Not good enough, that would work but waste too much chakra, and this guy would have poofed your Kage bunshins easily only touching them"

Naruto thought a bit more. That guy only strength was a draining taijutsu, so close fight was out of the question. He did not know long range just, so that was also out of the question. Kakashi wore a facemask like him and he was a pervert... Harem no just?

Kiiro sweat dropped, and offered a "last chance"

Naruto thought again hard. The guy was a rather slow taijutsu user. He didn't have a ranged direct damage ninjutsu like the Katon Sasuke had... By the way, why didn't Sasuke use it? Was he injured to the point of not being able to perform it? He didn't use the sharingan either. He would have to ask later.

So what was left? Kunai and shuriken. He would have to toss those. But he didn't throw them particularly fast and precise... How he would pull that off? Yes, he had the solution.

"I would encircle him with a few Kage bunshins to save chakra and all my kage bunshins would toss him kunai at the same time."

Kiiro smiled. "Good, I accept that, but you would have to remember not to have your shadow clones directly at the other side of the guy. It would be rather embarrassing to poof your shadow clones yourself. Also, it would be a good idea to move around the guy randomly while tossing your shuriken, it would have confused the guy, and make easier to hit him and dodge. A stationary shinobi is the perfect target. "

**-XXX-**

The Kyuubi was surprised to see a rather rusty set of gears, slowly coming to life, without her interference. She smirked. It was good to know the boy had started to use his brain

**END CHAPTER**

**Author Notes:** this chapter is really late, but finally it's out. I had several problems that I'm not going to enumerate. Also, I guess I'm not going to respond to your reviews due to the new policy in of forbidding it.

Well, if you REALLY want to know something about it, email me, and I will try to answer your questions.

I only got a match in the preliminaries. This is moving slowly, but we are getting there...


	10. Preliminary II

**FROG MASK**

_CHAPTER X: _

By Blackmamuth

"**Kyuubi speaking**"

Naruto blatantly stared at the vanishing form of Sasuke while he left the room with Kakashi. There was something that stank there. The mark that appeared during the combat and covered his face was too strange. Perhaps the creepy moving tattoo was part of the Uchiha bloodline?... Naruto closed his eyes, pondering about that possibility.

No, what was part of the Uchiha bloodline, was stealing thickbrows technique, the "_young lotus power_", or something like that. Naruto wondered if he could do that in the future.

No, Sasuke didn't use the sharingan during the match. Most likely the creepy tattoo wasn't part of it. It seemed to hinder Sasuke instead.

Why he didn't use the sharingan when he was getting his ass kicked? It would have helped him anticipate Yoroi movements. Using the ace you have in the sleeve when you are losing badly is the logical thing to do. He couldn't be out of chakra, right? He hadn't done serious fighting since two days ago... Wait! Sasuke didn't fight seriously since he was unconscious thanks to that Super-tongue weirdo. The answer had to be in that short period of time.

What happened while he was unconscious! There was some major event he missed for sure! Somehow Sasuke managed to lose his ability to use chakra, and got beaten into a shadow of his former self. Was the tattoo responsible for that? There was no other possible answer.

Naruto glanced at Sakura. She was awake all the time, so she had to know something. He asked her. "Sakura, did you see a weird thing on Sasuke's neck during the fight?"

Sakura refused to look at his eyes when he asked about the weird looking mark. She took a long minute to think about it and said "I also don't know".

Naruto wasn't convinced. Sakura was acting strange; he could tell she was extremely worried even before the match. If she didn't knew something was wrong, why she tried to force Sasuke to give up?

Why she didn't tell him either? He was Sasuke teammate too! Did she think he wouldn't understand? Oh...

Naruto lowered his head, to hide his grimace. Sakura didn't trust him.

Naruto closed his eyes and sighed. He was used to people not trusting him, it wasn't new. Only that he thought he had Sakura's trust.

Naruto repeated his old mantra in his head. The mantra he told to himself every night to try to fight the tears "Someday, I'll be Hokage, I'll be the strongest ninja of the village, and then everybody would acknowledge me". His smiling mask returned slowly to his face, and nobody would be able to guess his true feelings. After all, he had a lifetime of practice.

**-XXX-**

**_Zaku Abumi vs. Aburame Shino_**

Aburame Shino had done his homework and knew everything he needed to know about his opponent. It had been easy. The rest of the leaf group had always overlooked him, he had always been the silent weird guy in the background, and usually people talked about things like he wasn't there. Ino in particular had been very vocal about her previous encounter with the sound team, and thanks to that he knew what to expect. Adding to that the information he got from his bugs, he had a good plan. It was a shame that it could provoke severe injuries. Well, the guy was already injured and in the worst case there was a medical team watching.

Better safe than sorry. He would warn the poor guy, even better, if the guy forfeit, he could conserve the surprise factor a bit longer. "Forfeit. If you fight, you will be finished"

The sound genin took offense for that, and took out one of his bandaged arms from the sling.

Shino raised an eyebrow at the sound nin when he managed to maneuver his left arm in an attack position, and boldly stated that he was able to beat him with only one arm. One clearly broken arm.

Underestimating your enemy was bad. Overestimating yourself was worse. Those kind of statements killed shinobis, Shino ordered his bugs to scatter around him in the ground while waiting.

As he predicted, the sound guy knew his arms were damaged, so in order to make the maximum damage, he had to be closer. He didn't move and parried his punch with his left arm, while ordering his bugs in his right arm to attach to Zaku, meanwhile, he told Zaku "You can't beat me up with just one arm". Maybe he would quit. He didn't particularly enjoy crippling people, if it was possible he would avoid it.

As Shino expected, Zaku used his technique with his hands at close range, and delivered a powerful blast to his shoulder.

He rolled at the ground, carefully moving his body to end where he wanted. The plan was coming nicely. He had his cannibal bugs attached to the guy, got him surrounded by chakra eating bugs, and he was in a relatively safe distance. He was now, at the other end of the room, far enough where his enemy wind blast would do minimal damage and would be easier to dodge. Also, his earlier assumption regarding the power of said wind blasts was correct. They were weaker than Ino said, because Zaku had his arm broken.

He had suffered minimal damage. He had parried the punch having in mind those wind blasts, so when the guy used it, only his shoulder was damaged.

Well. It was checkmate. He would give the guy one last opportunity to give up. First, he ordered a few of his bugs to crawl from the holes in his neck to his face. It was psychological warfare. Usually scared silly the opponents. It worked. Zaku opened his eyes widely.

Then he ordered the bugs around Zaku, to make their presence know. Zaku looked back and saw them. It was his last opportunity to quit. He explained the situation. "These bugs attack their prey in numbers and eat chakra. If this many attack you, you are finished. If you attack me again with your left hand, the bugs will finish you from behind. You attack the bugs, I have an opening. Either way, you lose." Shino moved his hands into a hand seal. The bugs he ordered into his arms were cannibal bugs. He could render his ability useless even if the guy didn't use his wind cannon and had some other ace in his sleeve. He was not going to lose this match. Shino gave a piece of free advice. "You should always have a trump card". There, He had given a big hint. Maybe the guy would see the light, read underneath of the underneath and give up.

Surprisingly, Zaku's right arm was still usable, his trump card. It could have worked if he had only the plan he revealed to him, but since he had the precaution to obstruct both his arms, the outcome was even worse for him. Zaku's wind cannon couldn't find a way out and exploded inside Zaku's arms. Effectively tearing off one of them, and rendering the other useless. Shino used the momentary distraction to run into his back. He had given the clue to him earlier. He didn't understand then, maybe now would. He told him "When I ordered you to give up earlier, I ordered them to close up those holes. THIS is a true trump card". Shino attacked. The rest was easy.

Gekyou Hayate kneeled over Zaku, and gave Shino the fight. Shino slowly returned to the balcony, to let time to the bugs to return to his body.

He returned with his team. They congratulated him. Shino nodded and returned their good feelings "I'm counting on you guys too"

Kiba looked at him angrily. Shino ignored him, He was still angry about that flea incident.

**-XXX-**

Naruto was not happy. First of all, seeing the combat made him feel really weak. That Shino guy was good, much better than he believed him capable. At least he wasn't the only one who misjudged him. Sakura had also no idea. She also made very clear that she always found Shino creepy. "Great" Naruto asked himself in his mind. 'If she finds creepy a guy that has only bugs inside his skin, how would she react about another that had the greatest demon in existence in his head?'

"**She would be awed of my infinitely superior presence.**" The Kyuubi said from somewhere deep inside his head.

"Yeah, right fox, Keep dreaming, that would never happen" Naruto retorted also inwardly.

"**True. Simians aren't really THAT smart. Especially the ones hanging with a sorry excuse for a living being like you" **Said Kyuubi's voice.

"Like you had any friends!" Naruto retaliated.

"Come on, you two stop arguing**" **Kiiro interjected. He didn't particularly look forward to those two sending insults back and forth for the remaining of the day, so a distraction was imperative. "Naruto, can you make any strategy to fight someone like Shino?"

Naruto hastily focused in the task at hand, ignoring the cries of outrage the Kyubi directed to "annoying simians that had no respect for their betters".

**-XXX-**

Naruto frustration was growing; he couldn't find a reasonable opening to exploit if he had to fight Shino. He was starting to hate the mental exercise, because it showed clearly that he had serious shortcomings.

Naruto was sure that Shino still had aces in his sleeves that he hadn't shown. Even at the skill he fought, he couldn't find anything viable past the "Try to overwhelm him with _kage bunshins_, use a _henge_ with "the real Naruto" and transform into a bug to avoid him as long as possible." That one was the best he'd came with. And if he was going to be honest, Shino had more chakra eating bugs than clones he was capable to create. It wasn't farfetched that one lone bug would be capable to easily poof a _Kage bunshin_, it was simple math: the _kage bunshins_ had chakra, and Shino had thousands of chakra eating bugs. That approach was a little too risky.

Naruto had to find another way. 'Let's see, Shino and I are reasonably matched in speed, so there is no possibility there. If _Kage bunshin_ isn't going to work...' Naruto was scratching the bottom of the barrel. The task seemed impossible, but Naruto never ever would give up. What Jutsu had left that could work?

Naruto doubted the _sexy no jutsu_ would work with him, but it was worth a thought as a last desperate effort. Perhaps the _1000 years of pain_? Hmm...

'Okay, New possible tactic, distract him with _Kage bunshins_, _henge_ into a bug, and sneak into his back. Using one medium power _fire tag_ (the one used for ninjas to light camp fires/make signals/distractions) attach it in _1000 years of pain_ style. High amount of heat there. His body gases could help too. The bugs in his body would probably turn crazy. Use the opportunity to deal massive damage.' Naruto barely restrained a snicker. He had a plan. He submitted it to his father.

Kiiro was speechless. Not only Naruto had come with a plan that could work, he also had deduced one of the natural weak points of the Aburame clan. Fire. Bugs were extremely weak to fire. Well, the other big weakness of the Aburame clan was that they usually had very few chakra to use in ninjutsu or genjutsu. Yes, they used most of their chakra to feed the bugs that lived inside them. Traditionally, those points made them the natural bane of the Uchiha clan. The Aburames had a strong taijutsu (A taijutsu that included generous help of bugs), did use hardly any ninjutsu/genjutsu (where the sharingan could help the Uchiha most) And bugs were they primary attack method, bugs whose movement the sharingan was unable to predict. It was rumored that it was because of that that the Uchiha taught all of their members strong fire jutsu in their genin days, to partially shorten they disadvantage with the Aburame clan. Kiiro cheerfully shared the information with his son.

Naruto absorbed the information his father was giving, wondering if he would need it in the future. While enjoying the enthusiastic approval his plan had.

**-XXX-**

**_Tsurumi Misumi vs. Kankurou_**

Naruto moved his head sideways while trying to come with a strategy for his father AGAIN. Basically, a puppet was an extremely complex weapon. So complex, that it was like fighting two people at the same time. But with the particularity that the puppet was not alive. The trick was going for the puppeteer. Of course, the puppeteer knew that and would not be caught so easily.

It was common sense than a puppeteer was a long range specialist (meaning, he avoids combat while the puppet does all the damage for him). And that was good and bad. Bad because Naruto was only able to fight in close quarters. Good because it was likely that his close combat skills were not very good.

So Naruto had to find a way to "Tie" the puppet in place, and attack the puppeteer itself. How?

'If Kakashi had agreed to teach me the _inner decapitation technique_ it would be no problem!' Naruto thought.

Well. He had only one possible jutsu regarding that puppet (_Harem no jutsu_ and _1000 years of pain_ wouldn't work). Using _Kage bunshins_ to try to stop it, attaching explosive tags to it was a possibility. It wouldn't do much damage, after all, a puppet was a Ninja tool, designed to suffer incredible amounts of punishment...

The problem was that Karasu didn't show any of his abilities. He hugged his opponent to unconsciousness, and won easily. What surprises did the puppet still hide?

Naruto submitted his conclusions to his father, who nodded, but had no time to comment before another match showed in the electronic panel.

**Haruno Sakura vs. Yamanaka Ino **

"I can't believe it." Kiiro said. The combat that just took place was the worst Kiiro had seen in any chuunin exam. The two girls only had a mediocre taijutsu! (Except that Ino girl, that had a possession jutsu...) The combat only redeeming quality was the skill the blonde showed to keep Sakura in one place so she could use her family jutsu.

"Sakura-chan has been disqualified, and is still unconscious" Naruto added in a sad tone. It wasn't that bad, she had no serious injuries and at least she had gone down with a tie.

"Really, what is Kakashi thinking? How is that he taught nothing to the girl? "Kiiro was annoyed. "Even if you have a team of genius in your team," (Kiiro said the word genius with obvious sarcasm) "you still have to TEACH them something!" Kiiro swore "If I was still alive, I would have demoted him to GENIN! how can he send someone with that level to the chuunin exam? Kakashi is going to hear me!"

Kakashi, meanwhile, was still reading his porn.

Sakura and Ino, regained consciousness nearly at the same time, The combat most important outcome was that their old friendship was only a small step away from returning, but it was not going to be, their bickering about who owned Sasuke's affections distanced it again.

**Tenten vs. Temari**

Naruto looked at the pair of pretty girls in the arena. The blonde had heir hair tied in four pigtails, and carried what he believed was a giant fan. The other (the one he saw screaming at thickbrows in the second exam) had his hair in two buns. They looked at each other with an air of confidence, an air you have when you know you are strong.

The match had a fast rhythm. Those two were impressive. The blonde was capable of sending powerful waves of air, which tossed aside the incredibly fast and precise weapons of the dark-haired girl.

And that Tenten girl opened some scrolls. Unsealed a LOT of weapons and threw them all at the blonde. It was a shame that the sand's kuonichi deflected them easily. If she tossed them with several different curved paths, there was no way that the blonde could have deflected all.

Naruto stopped in his train of thought. He had it, even before the match was over. Naruto had the tactic to defeat the blonde. If he was correct, she was unable to attack/defend from different directions. And when she was using her fan, she had a wide opening in her back...

The trick was tricking her to attack in one direction, and then attack her from behind. With _Kage bunshin_'s, it would be easy to attack from all sides.

Naruto hadn't enough time to make the finishing touches into his plan, when the match was over. A powerful wind sent the dark haired girl down, and the blonde caught her with her fan.

Naruto saw the motion at the same time as Lee. The blonde was going to toss aside bun-girl towards the wall! Naruto jumped with Lee to catch her before she could hit it.

Naruto was angry. How dare she treat her that bad? She had already been declared the winner.

Lee stared at her angrily. "Is that how you treat someone that gave his all in battle?"

Naruto, meanwhile, lowered Tenten to the floor, and shook his head in agreement with Lee's words.

Temari was still in her smug act "Shut up, take that loser and get out of here" She ordered at the pair.

Naruto saw red. How dare she! He was sorely tempted to teach a lesson to the girl, but Lee took the initiative. He performed a rather weak "_Konoha senpuu_", (He was dodging the several scattered weapons in the floor, so he couldn't use his full speed)

Lee's kick was blocked easily by the blonde kuonichi, who called Lee attack pathetic. Naruto was clenching his jaws hard to about insulting the yellow haired girl. He wanted to teach her a lesson. But he wasn't stupid. Attacking in the middle of the chuunin exam? He wasn't going to show his _Kage Bunshin _until his match, to conserve the surprise factor, so he picked a kunai from the floor and played with it, trying to be menacing.

Temari smirked at him. "What about you, loser, too scared?"

Before Naruto could answer to Temari's taunt, Gai jumped at the ring too, and prompted them to stop. Lee looked at Gai with a disappointed face. It was obvious that he wanted to teach the girl a lesson too.

The short redhead with the kanji in his forehead also interfered. "Temari, get up here, Stop wasting time with those pathetic guardians..."

Lee raised his head to look at Panda-guy. He maintained his gaze a few seconds, silently challenging him.

"That's enough Lee!" Gai said, while putting his hands into Lee's shoulders, to get his attention. "Sand's team... There's something I'd like to warn you about. This kid is strong. You'll better prepare yourself"

Naruto was still near the downed Tenten, when Sakura shouted from the balcony "DON'T LOSE TO THOSE GUYS NARUTO!" Naruto looked at the balcony surprised. Sakura had NEVER cheered for him. Was she alright? Naruto returned to the balcony carrying the unconscious Tenten.

After he made sure she was alright with her teammates, Naruto rejoined Sakura, who thanked him for cheering for her earlier, stating that if it wasn't for him, she would have lost. Naruto agreed to that. It was a shame that Sakura didn't take his agreement very well.

**Nara Shikamaru vs. Kin Tsuchi**

It was an interesting fight. Nara Shikamaru displayed an excellent tactic and tricked his enemy to unconsciousness. When he connected his shadow with hers, Shikamaru's actions caused the two of them to thrown a shuriken at each other, but at the last moment, Shikamaru bended backwards, making Kin to hit the wall, effectively putting her out of commission.

Naruto enjoyed the match. Simple tactics were as effective as the most complicated jutsu. And Shikamaru managed to look cool doing it. It was good that one of the few people that were nice to him on the academy passed to the next round.

Naruto was still congratulating the annoyed Shikamaru, when the panel stopped with two names... Uzumaki Naruto vs. Inuzuka Kiba.

**--END CHAPTER—**

AUTHOR NOTES: I bet is obvious I like Shino. This chapter was HARD and boring to write. Really, I was tempted to skip the fights, only covering Naruto and Lee...

I will skip chouji and the remaining sound guy for sure...


	11. Preliminary III

**FROG MASK**

_CHAPTER XI: _

By Blackmamuth

"**Kyuubi speaking**"

Inuzuka Kiba.

Naruto had to fight Kiba. Naruto didn't know much about Kiba, only that he smelled funny, and that he went everywhere with his dog Akamaru.

Naruto could see his dog inside his jacket. Naruto was wondering if he was going to fight with a dog, He didn't particularly enjoy harming animals.

"**WHY NOT? Dogs hunt foxes, and I bet the dog would not hesitate hunting you!"**

'I am not a fox, Stupid oversized furball!' Naruto thought angrily.

"NARUTO, PAY ATTENTION! You are in a middle of a match, focus on it!" Kiiro nearly screamed in Naruto's head, clearly annoyed at his lack of concentration.

"HYA HA HA, He's frozen at the thought of fighting us, Akamaru! It's like we've already won! So lucky, eh, Akamaru?" Akamaru answered with an enthusiastic "bark!"

Naruto was pissed. "SHUT THE HELL UP!" Naruto shouted. "And get rid of the puppy, It could get hurt!" That was going to piss him off. If Naruto knew something about Kiba, it was that he loved his dog to death. (Some mean kids in the academy made some cruel jokes about that. It pissed Kiba a lot)

Kiba wasn't angry, Naruto's plan failed. He told Naruto in a condescending tone, while petting Akamaru "Idiot, Akamaru's fighting with me." Akamaru added to his partner statement an angry "Bark!"

Naruto frowned. Was that allowed? Well, if the referee hadn't said anything, it had to be. Well, dogs were effective and had an excellent smell sense, Naruto knew that from his only encounter with ninja dogs, in the fight with Zabuza in the wave country, Kakashi summoned ninja dogs, and used them to immobilize Zabuza, in order to use his final attack.

Naruto was still Naruto, and couldn't help it. Kiba had just called him idiot? Naruto wasn't going to accept that. Never! He taunted Kiba back. "Heh, it's alright, you'll need the help" He loved doing that. He had started to do it when he finally grew tired of crying. Those comments were like a survival instinct that Naruto had developed from all those years of insults and glares. People hated you? Return their hurtful words with a smile. Show them that their words and glares didn't affect you. Naruto had long prided himself that those words didn't get to him anymore, and that someday, he would make them eat those words back. He was long immune to hurtful words. It was a second nature. No one else dared call the Hokage "old geezer". He did no longer fear anything. He was Uzumaki Naruto.

Kiba frowned at Naruto's comment and ordered Akamaru to stay out of the fight. Naruto barely managed to restrain his immense surprise regarding these actions. Kiba was stupid enough to purposely throw off his advantages? It was mind numbing. The mere idea that someone like him could make a chuunin was enough to give him a headache.

Kiiro was also surprised for the same reason. He would not tell Naruto, but that Kiba kid had just lost all his possibilities to become a chuunin. No competent team leader would give a fighting advantage to an enemy without a good reason.

Kiba didn't fool around, and attacked immediately after the "begin" from the referee. Kiba made a single hand seal, and his features changed, becoming more animal-like, his claws sharpened, and his eyes gained a feral look. _Quadruped no jutsu. _The changes Kiba experienced resembled the ones Naruto experienced when he tapped into the Kyuubi's chakra.

Naruto was still digesting the huge tactical mistake Kiba had just made, when Kiba used his jutsu and charged at him. Naruto hadn't enough time to move, and was caught mid motion into the _Kage bunshin_ seal. Kiba was fast! His attack hit him. It had power too. The outcome was pain. Naruto literally flew six meters backwards, and returned at the floor with a sickening "Crunch!"

Kiba smirked and boldly stated "He won't open his eyes for a while, referee." Kiba hadn't enough time to lower his guard when Naruto got up. The attack made him bleed a little from his mouth, and he had a few bruises here and there, but overall, he was alright. But now, he knew what to do to defeat Kiba. It had come to him when he had seen for a fleeting moment Kakashi sensei when he flew backwards from Kiba attack. Something he learned during his genin test was perfect for the occasion.

There was something he had to do first. Naruto's stubborn pride wouldn't let him admit he was taken unprepared. If there was something he didn't like, was people looking at him and dismiss him as the "dead last". He boasted to Kiba that he let him hit him to measure his strength. (And he had measured it, alright, Kiba punched hard!)

Naruto looked at Kiba's eyes, and hold his gaze. Naruto shouted "DON'T UNDERESTIMATE ME!" That felt good.

Naruto's plan depended on Akamaru taking part on the match, so he wiped the blood that was falling from his mouth, and added "You should stop acting tough too, Use your dog or whatever"

Some chuunins, Jounins and the Hokage around the room rolled their eyes mentally. In their minds, Naruto had just lost a lot of points in the chuunin exam, nearly all of them. Why would he tell his opponent to use his dog? A chuunin wouldn't go purposely for the most difficult and dangerous path to fulfill a mission. Therefore, asking his enemy to use his most powerful weapon was not something a chuunin would do.

Kiba and Akamaru charged towards Naruto, in mid motion, Kiba showed his intentions. He threw a pair of smoke balls towards Naruto's position, obscuring half of the room, and rendering his vision sense useless. It was now obvious what he was trying to do. Kiba would rely in his clan superior smell sense to destroy him inside the cloud of smoke.

Naruto smirked inside the smoke. It was like all the circumstances were in his favor. Naruto's smell was also unusual thanks to the fox, and Kiba's strong smell wasn't hard to detect. Although, Naruto wasn't going to tell Kiba. Naruto concentrated a good portion of his chakra to his feet, to even his speed with Kiba's, who was running towards him, with his claws prepared. Naruto exchanged a few punches with Kiba, dodging him as well as he could. Seeing the outcome of their last exchange, Naruto reached the decision that he was not fighting inside the smoke if he could avoid it. Even if he could detect Kiba, the other genin had trained fighting in those conditions and Naruto had not, so he was in severe disadvantage. Therefore Naruto tried to get out of the cloud of smoke and in doing so nearly fell into the ambush Akamaru prepared at the other end of the cloud. If it wasn't for his more than average smell sense, he would have fallen for Kiba's trap. Naruto smirked, it couldn't be more convenient. He decided to "fall" into Kiba's trap, and when Akamaru attacked, Naruto retreated again inside the smoke, luring Akamaru inside the cloud with him. Perfect, he was out of sight of everyone. The plan was in his second stage.

**-XXX-**

The smoke cloud that covered half the ground level slowly dissipated, and the picture it left was one of total victory for Kiba. Akamaru was standing happily swinging his tail near a downed and unmoving Naruto, several Kunai and other miscellaneous ninja tools scattered around him. To most of the presents, the picture told that the blond boy struggled until the end, but he finally lost.

Kiba, like most of the presents, fully bought the picture laid in front of him, He laughed, clearly pleased with his dog, and kneeled to receive with a hug his loyal friend Akamaru, that was running across the tower floor towards his partner.

"Great job! You did it, Aka- " Kiba was still congratulating Akamaru, when he felt it. Or to be more precise, smelled it. He had no time to react, when the transformed Naruto regained his original form, and delivered a powerful punch with the added momentum of his run from the other side of the tower floor. A devastating punch that made Kiba spit a good amount of blood, and send him to the floor, where he rolled a few meters before stopping.

Kiba was far from finished and he regained his footing not without struggling a little to get up. Kiba had taken a blow to his pride, but that didn't matter much to him. Only one thing mattered for the Inuzuka shinobi. He shouted "What happened to Akamaru?"

Yes, Akamaru, his friend and partner, the puppy he received from his sister the day he entered the academy, his best friend who shared with him the road that led him here. Halfway into chuunindom.

And he saw it, behind the Naruto that was in the center of the field, there was another Naruto, the Naruto that had been posing as a defeated opponent. It held tightly against his body a clearly battered and unconscious Akamaru. The "Naruto" Kiba just thought was a bunshin (because it was now obvious that the two Naruto's were very real), was holding a Kunai ready to pierce trough Akamaru's right lung. A fatal injury. Akamaru would suffocate to death in a matter of seconds. Kiba froze on the spot, not believing what his eyes were telling him.

The Naruto in the middle of the room, talked, in a clear and cold voice, that sent chills into Kiba's spine. "Forfeit, or say goodbye to the dog"

**-XXX-**

"Forfeit, or say goodbye to the dog" there, he said it. He used the most menacing and cold voice that he managed in those circumstances. (Actually, he tried to copy Sasuke-bastard, but he would never admit that!). It was hard. It nearly broke Naruto's heart. Naruto wondered how Kakashi managed to say it that easily during their genin test. "_Sakura, kill Naruto or Sasuke dies_".

Naruto was trying to control his nerves, and praying silently that Kiba wouldn't call his bluff. Because Naruto was bluffing. He had no intention to kill Akamaru. But Kiba didn't know that. That was where he was betting into. Naruto was bluffing with an exposed winning card. Who would be stupid enough to sacrifice a friend for a promotion? Naruto, for one, would not. Talk about brainless questions. It was a card that he was unwilling to play. Kiba and Akamaru were part of Konoha and a Hokage would never harm anyone in his village.

Kiba was just frozen. His brain was so overwhelmed that it forgot to send signals to his body. Several images of the good and bad memories he spent with Akamaru where overloading in his head. The day his sister gave him the small basket with the whimpering puppy, Akamaru helping him escape Iruka-Sensei demon-head mode, when they managed to perfect the _dual quadruped no jutsu... _

The public of the match was holding their breath. The tension was palpable. The chuunins and the other people that had hastily dismissed Naruto's chances to get promoted due to what most of them thought was a tactical mistake were hastily revising their previous assumptions towards him. They just realized that Naruto was planning for it all along. Sarutobi silently took a puff in his pipe, enjoying the tobacco's sweet fragrance and pondering about the interesting match that was taking place in front of his old eyes. Who would have thought that Naruto had it in him?

Most genins were shocked. Especially the ones who knew Naruto well. Where was the loud and irritating prankster? How was possible that he'd become that good? He even looked cool!

The few participants that weren't surprised were the sand's trio and the remaining sound genin, Gaara of the sand was still expressionless, Temari was replaying in her mind the first time he met him, when he tried to save the annoying runt that bumped into her. The blonde was so pathetically protective of his little follower that it was sickening. And now the guy showed some backbone? Well, good for him.

Kankurou was agreeing inwardly with the urchin head methods. In Kankurou book, all was fair in the shinobi world. Exploiting the weak link in their coordination was the way to go. He knew it very well being a puppeteer. He had to be always aware of his own position, the puppet and the enemy positions. A mistake in that department could be fatal. If the dog-boy was unable to protect his companion and had done a fatal mistake, he deserved the consequences.

Kakashi was surprised, although nobody would have said it, because he was still reading his orange book. It seemed that Naruto understood his words during the bell test. And used his lesson against Kiba. Emotional blackmail. Had Naruto grown that much without him noticing? He would have to think about it... Perhaps after finishing that chapter with the monkey and his banana. The plot was getting really interesting...

Shikamaru's was impressed. Naruto just managed to come with a good battle plan that would likely give him the victory against a superior opponent. That was something Shikamaru respected and hated. Revising his impressions on people was so troublesome...

Sakura stared. She knew Naruto was way stronger than her, which was no surprise. What was upsetting was the mere idea that he could be occasionally smarter than her. It was a huge blow to her self esteem. For a long time now, she had known that her teammates were stronger than her, she had been unable to follow their grown, and now she was reduced into being a heavy burden to team seven, watching her male companions climb to new heights each day. Naruto had just demonstrated that. He was improving every day. And what about her? She was supposed to be the nº1 kuonichi of their promotion, for crying out loud! She had not improved in the slightest! She was the same weakling as always. She had to be protected always. And her inability to correct that was frustrating her to no end.

**-XXX-**

Kiba was desperately searching for a way out of the nightmarish situation. Akamaru was his best friend. And he couldn't lose him. Kiba's body was shaking with fear. No, not fear, Dread, with a capital D. Dread for Akamaru.

"COWARD! FIGHT LIKE A MAN!" Kiba shouted towards Naruto. Perhaps it would work, and he could kick his ass as hard as he wanted. Because he wanted to really hurt him.

The Naruto in the center of the room raised an eyebrow. "IDIOT! If a hostage is taken, you will have tough choices. Individual play that disrupts the team can put your comrades in danger. It is the way of the shinobi. IT'S REAL LIFE! DON'T CALL ME COWARD FOR IT!.

Sakura stared. Naruto just repeated Kakashi's words during their bell test.

Kiba swore. It was now obvious that having Akamaru attack Naruto without backup had been truly a bad choice, even with the element of surprise against him and being completely unable to see in the smoke, Naruto had been able to defeat Akamaru. Kiba underestimated him greatly.

Kiba wanted to rip something to tiny little pieces. If that something was Naruto, even better. But he couldn't. He hadn't found any possibility to get Akamaru out of that hold without fatal injury. And giving the special soldier pill to him was impossible because he was unconscious. Kiba couldn't see any other option. He raised his hand, hating himself. Kiba closed his eyes. It took a supreme act of willpower to spit a forced "I forfeit" while barely restraining his immense anger at Naruto. Tears of rage were leaking in Kiba's eyes. Losing that way, when he could grasp the victory, when he was obviously stronger than Naruto... he was going to pay.

Naruto regained his foxy grin, and gently lowered Akamaru to the floor. The referee Nodded, He was raising a hand to declare Naruto the winner, when Kiba started a mad run towards Naruto. He shouted "_Piercing fang_" And jumped into the air, rotating faster and faster, until his form blurred with his claws in front.

If that jutsu hit Naruto, he would take severe damage. The rage that was fueling Kiba gave him even more power behind his sharp claws. Kiba delivered a furious slash to the Naruto in the center of the room, who puffed and disappeared. It wasn't enough to Kiba, Naruto had to pay. Kiba continued towards the remaining Naruto...

Naruto saw Kiba's attack. An attack that destroyed his Kage bunshin that was standing in the middle of the room, and after the disappearance of the Naruto in the center of the room, Kiba changed directions to attack him, the real Naruto. It was obvious that Naruto couldn't dodge it, Kiba, in his berserk frenzy, he had surpassed his previous speed, and Naruto would be unable to keep with him even if he concentrated all his chakra in his feet. There was no escape.

Then, there was only one option. Naruto grabbed hastily Akamaru from his resting place in the floor, and used it as a shield. That action was Naruto's only option that could make Kiba stop his attack before ripping Naruto into bloody pieces.

Kiba's overloaded mind somehow had a moment of clarity, and saw the unconscious Akamaru before it was too late. Not without difficulty, Kiba stopped himself in time, inches before he sank his sharp claws through the unconscious Akamaru. If Kiba didn't snap soon out of his murdering frenzy, Kiba's first couple of kills was going to be his partner Akamaru and a blonde haired shinobi.

Gekyou Hayate was annoyed. The Inuzuka boy had forfeit, therefore losing the match instantly but when the blonde shinobi had released his hostage, he seemed to forget about it. Instead Kiba attacked like his life was in it. Granted, he didn't have enough time to announce Uzumaki victory (those damn coughs were taking a toll on him) but when one forfeit the match was obviously over. Childs these days... He sighed, and readied himself to knock the impulsive boy unconscious.

He stopped himself when he saw the blonde boy reaching for the unconscious dog from the floor. Even if the match was over, that should prove very interesting to see.

Several 'poof' were heard around Kiba, and four _Kage bunshin _regained their original form from the kunai and other miscellaneous tools scattered around the floor. The _kage bunshins_ were holding those forms since the cloud of smoke cleared and revealed the victorious Akamaru with an unconscious Naruto surrounded by the scattered kunai.

The _Kage bunshins _didn't pause, and the first of them proceeded to throw a devastating punch to Kiba's face, shouting "U". The other three skidded in the floor in their knees under Kiba's falling form, and delivered three uppercut kicks while shouting "ZU" "MA" "KI". The first one (the one that threw the first punch) jumped into one of the other three feet, and he was catapulted high into the air, above Kiba, where he delivered a powerful downward kick that sent Kiba to the floor with a terrorizing speed. After the last blow, the first Naruto completed the name of the taijutsu move "NARUTO RENDAN!"

The examiner didn't even kneel to assess Kiba's state. Kiba had already forfeited, and he let him continue with that stunt because his opponent seemed capable to handle it. He coughed, and raised his hand "Winner, Uzumaki Naruto"

Lee clenched his fist hard, while letting escape an enthusiastic "OHHHHHH!" In Lee's eyes, it had been a pretty match, both opponents overflowing with the power of youth. Although what touched him was that the underdog with no special skills or bloodline had beaten an accomplished fighter gifted with a long clan tradition.

Sakura shouted a happy "HELL, YEAH! GOOD JOB NARUTO!" While waving at him.

Even Shikamaru was pulled into the mood of the match, he shouted "THAT NARUTO BEAT KIBA!"

Hyuuga Hinata twiddled her thumbs, and let escape a soft wistful "Naruto-kun..."

**-XXX-**

Naruto clenched his fist with a smile. It was now official. He had gotten stronger!

"Great match Naruto!" Kiiro congratulated him.

"Hehehe, thanks!" Naruto grinned.

"**Great match! That was a great match? Don't make me cry. It was pathetic. Even a flea would be able to beat that smelly simian... nevertheless; it's a huge feat coming from the little macaque. **"

"Yeah, yeah, look at me! Next stop, chuunin!" Naruto bragged.

**-XXX-**

Hyuuga Hinata saw Naruto coming towards her position. She wanted to congratulate him for his victory, say a few words to him, anything. But she knew she lacked the courage to do so. Even looking at his face would be extremely hard for her. She looked at her pouch. There was the medicinal cream she had prepared. Would she be able to give it to him? Her heart was beating erratically. 'What should I do?' Hinata reached a decision. She turned towards Naruto, and offered him the small jar of healing salve. She was shaking, and her courage was failing her rapidly. She managed to whisper "N... Naruto-Kun..."

Naruto turned around, and looked at Hinata, that was offering him a small jar. Naruto was confused. "What is this?"

Yuuhi Kurenai, (Hinata's sensei) answered for Hinata. "Medicinal cream"

"For me?" Naruto asked, hardly believing that someone would give him something. Medicinal cream? It was a nice gesture, really, but he didn't need that. "I'm not hurt, Hinata-chan"

Hinata seemed to lose the courage that she had just managed to gather at Naruto's answer. And she lowered her head, looking at the floor.

Yuuhi Kurenai spoke Again. "Just take it... Naruto..."

Well, why not. He rarely got any gift, and he had some bruises here and there. Naruto scratched his head "uh.. Sure..." Naruto got the small jar from the timid girl "Thanks, You're nice, Hinata!"

A small smile found her way into Hinata's face. Naruto said she was Nice.

The panel showed another pair of names.

**Hyuuga Hinata vs. Hyuuga Neji**

**-END CHAPTER-**

here is the new chapter of Frog mask. I'm afraid, that I have Kiba and Naruto a bit Ooc. Especially Kiba. But I needed Kiba to show his Jutsus, If I ended the fight after Naruto got Akamaru, he wouldn't have used the piercing Fang (And we wouldn't have seen _Naruto Rendan_).

I didn't wrote until the end of the preliminary because now is Hinata/Neji fight. Ugh! THAT one is a tough cookie. dialogue, and more dialogue, Naruto swearing with Hinata blood. Naruto loosing his cool and Attacking Neji... I guess I'm lazy, and this chapter is already long in my standards.

Also, tomorrow the holidays end for me, so my time will be severely limited. don't worry if I take a long time to update.

Someone asked me if this was going to be Yaoi. Answer: NO. Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against Yaoi, but I feel incapable to write it.


	12. Preliminary IV

**FROG MASK**

_CHAPTER XII: _

By Blackmamuth

"**Kyuubi speaking**"

_I always had found funny that being nearly beaten to death is one of my fondest memories. –Hyuuga Hinata_

Hyuuga Hinata knew she wasn't a particularly strong shinobi. She had been beaten soundly by her younger sister several times in sparring matches. That wasn't that surprising in itself. Hanabi was a genius, and she was not.

The disapproving gaze from his father watching her shortcomings in those fights had hurt more than the physical pain from the beatings themselves.

She had known for long that she was a disappointment. Oh, nobody dared to tell that to her face, but she knew it. The day her father enrolled her in the academy, not deeming her worthy enough to be trained inside the clan was a huge blow to her already low self esteem. The conversation she overheard with her sensei and her father was the nail in that particular coffin. The Hyuuga heir was supposed to be trained personally by the elders themselves, only to enter the academy to attend the genin examination to join Konoha shinobi ranks. Tradition dictated that only the branch house attended the academy classes, the main house was educated instead by the clan itself, teaching them the Hyuuga most exclusive and secret jutsus, politics, etiquette and protocol.

It didn't help Hinata's self esteem that she suspected that the village gave her genin rank only because of her eyes. Hinata wasn't stupid, when people looked at her, they saw her white eyes. Not her. They saw a Hyuuga, not a scared girl afraid to disappoint their peers. They saw one member of the strongest clan of the leaf, not a girl that barely passed the genin exam.

But she wasn't going to give up. Someday, somehow, she would improve, becoming someone worthy of respect, they would see her, not her eyes. They would see past the "Hyuuga" to see the "Hinata". That was Hinata dream. To change herself.

Wasn't ironic that people noticing her scared her? She wanted people to recognize her, to tell her she was strong, to be noticed as a strong shinobi, but she was afraid of being judged and being deemed lacking instead.

An idea was what helped her during the exhausting training and terrifying missions. That helped her cope with the disappointment of the elders. An idea that she developed from watching Naruto. Naruto wasn't very strong compared to his classmates, but he never let it stop him. When he failed, he got up again, and tried another time. _Never give up. If you get down try again_. That was real courage. That was what she learned from Naruto. She could change herself. She would change herself. How, she didn't known, but she would do it.

Naruto was the boy that despite having the worst grades of their class, had never given up. Hinata had always envied him, to be able to be in the spotlight, to be able to always say out loud what he wanted on life, to be able to dream to be Hokage. To not be scared of anything.

People mocked him, insulted him, and made fun of his dream. And despite that, he never gave up. He flashed his foxy grin, and proclaimed to everyone he would be Hokage no matter what. And Hinata believed him. She could already envision his foxy grin in the mountain, with the other Hokages.

Today, in Hinata's mind, she had won. She did it. She overcame her fears in the match with Neji, and managed to fight with all her forces. She never managed to do that before. She managed to change herself. It was a tiny victory. A small step in the long road of becoming stronger. Now, she was nearer to her destination. She knew, that someday, she would reach it.

But today her victory wasn't enough. She lost soundly. Like always.

But even her tiny victory had a reward. Naruto noticed her. Acknowledged her. Cheered for her. It was enough to make a smile appear in her bruised face.

Naruto had helped her make her first clumsy step towards being stronger. She was going to try again, and next time, she would become a chuunin. And that would be another step in the right direction. Hinata was going to learn how to walk. And eventually, she would reach her dream.

-XXX-

Angry wasn't strong enough to describe what Naruto's felt about the combat between Neji and Hinata. Pissed wasn't also. Stark raving mad was more accurate, but it wasn't still quite there.

Naruto was trying to hide his emotions from the world like a good shinobi would do, with rather surprising success, one must point. He had a lot of practice doing exactly that in his childhood, after all.

During the match, when that destiny idiot started talking down Hinata into giving up was maddening, and then, he mocked her efforts to put up a decent fight. Especially because the moron wanted her to be in pain. He enjoyed beating her verbally. What kind of messed up bastard was that guy?

Why he attacked family? According to Naruto's way of seeing things, it was utter madness. Family was something to treasure and cherish. That Neji boy was lucky enough to have a family. Even if what Kakashi said was true, and half his family treated him like dirt, it was still wrong. Naruto would have given his dream in a heartbeat if that meant he could have a family. He really tried not to explode during the match.

But with a SUPREME effort, he managed to hold it. Naruto saw himself in the small girl fighting impossible odds. Hinata said that she wanted to change herself. Something he also wanted. From dead last to Hokage, the best shinobi in Konoha. And the white eyed guy said that a loser would be always a loser. That everyone fate was written when they were born. Obviously, those words didn't agree with Naruto's beliefs. But even after hearing them, Naruto keep his mouth shut.

But Neji wasn't finished. He started guessing Hinata's train of thought with his Byakugan, telling everyone present that Hinata was not able to overcome her fears, that changing herself was impossible. And that was the last straw. Naruto couldn't keep his feelings locked anymore. He shouted to Hinata. "YOU CAN! STOP DECIDING THINGS ABOUT PEOPLE, IDIOT!" Since his first outburst, Naruto had encouraged Hinata to fight with all his spirit.

But the sad truth was that Hinata had no chance to win without "creative" tactics, though. Especially after seeing a bit of the fight, Naruto quickly reached the conclusion that the girl would lose if she did stick with that "gentle fist" style, and let the fight end without trying anything else. And when Neji threw her to the floor the first time, Naruto realized that Hinata could be seriously hurt in that fight. (A rather alien concept for Naruto, especially because he was used to recover from his injuries with only a good night sleep, and there was no injury grave enough that remained after he woke up. he would wake up like nothing happened. Only after the wave mission, he did notice that little advantage the fox gave him, before that, he always believed everyone healed that fast.)

The match continued rather one sided, the girl was obviously losing, only still fighting because of her will and endurance. It was only a matter of time that she would be defeated and she would receive severe damage in the process. At the very end, Naruto had to try to stop it. He had to plead Hinata to give up, telling her than her health was more important than an exam.

The girl didn't seem have the same opinion. It seemed that for her, it was more than an exam, something worth risking everything.

It hurt. It hurt so much to tell someone to give up. It was against his nature. In a normal day, Naruto would have burned with anger at the mere idea of someone giving up. But it wasn't a normal day, it wasn't a mission. It was a stupid fight for a chance at a promotion. A chuunin exam took place twice a year. Giving up was sad but perfectly acceptable. Naruto had encouraged Hinata to fight, and wouldn't want to have her death in his conscience. This wasn't a mission. Logic said that giving up was acceptable. Although his heart said the contrary, it was the right thing to do. His heart wanted to tell Hinata to continue the fighting and teach that arrogant bastard a good lesson no matter what, but his brain knew that the chances of that happening were near zero. In the end, logic had won. There would be always more exams and a promotion wasn't something important enough to wager your career as a shinobi. Naruto begged Hinata to stop.

But even after his loud pleading to stop the fighting, Hinata didn't give up. Until she couldn't stand anymore, she continued fighting.

Naruto really respected that. He knew how hard it was to walk that path. Never surrender. Never give up despite common sense. Continue to strive for the highly improbable (The word impossible didn't exist in Uzumaki Naruto vocabulary). To continue walking a chosen path no matter the costs. That was Naruto's way of the ninja. Naruto's life code.

There was something that was bugging Naruto. If he had been the one fighting, he would have never given up the match. Why the double standard? Why it was acceptable for Hinata to give up in his mind, and not himself? It was a worrying idea. Something he had to meditate about. Was he being stupid because of his stubbornness?

The combat continued, in where Hinata was barely managing to resist the inevitable, until, she fell down, and her body seemed to have lost the strength to continue the match.

Naruto exhaled the breath he didn't know he was holding. It was over, finally. The entire match had been a torture to the psyche of Uzumaki Naruto. There had been moments where his mind played with the idea to jump in the arena and stop the match himself. The only thing that prevented him from doing so was the fact that he would not appreciate his own fight being jumped into, and that he would be most likely disqualified from the chuunin exam.

And then, a badly beaten Hinata barely managed to find the strength to get up and stand. She was in no condition to fight anymore, and the mere gesture was only a show of her willingness to fight. Hinata was shaking, clutching her abdomen, obviously in great pain. Neji, seeing she wasn't going to attack soon, and he was clearly the winner of the match, entered again lecture mode.

"From the time of your birth the responsibility of the Hyuuga main house has been forced upon you. You have always hated yourself for you weakness. But people cannot change, that is destiny." He made a small pause, to put more weight in his words.  
"You cannot change, there is no need to suffer anymore, let it go." Neji finished.

Hinata looked at Neji, for the first time in years without fear in her heart. She had just fought her fears and won. And saw it. In her exhausted gaze Hinata saw for the first time Neji's pain.

"That's not true, Neji. Because… cough" Hinata's mouth was suddenly painted with the red of blood, a few drops escaped her tiny mouth and stained the floor in red. "It's not me at all…" Hinata's white eyes found the emotionless eyes of her opponent. "The person lost and suffering within the destiny of main and branch houses is you"

At those words, Neji rage flared. The veins around his eyes doubled their size, and he ran towards Hinata, with the intention of ending her life. He was radiating a good amount of killer intent.

The referee shouted "Neji, this match is over!" Sadly, the warning from the referee wasn't enough. Neji didn't stop.

The jounins reacted almost instantly after that. In a heartbeat, Kurenai, Kakashi, Gai and the sickly referee restrained Neji from going further. In the same heartbeat, Naruto jumped the handrail to the main level where the fighting took place. Although Naruto wasn't fast enough to go anywhere near Neji in time to do anything before the jounins had effectively immobilized him. But a few of the people watching took note of his reaction to Neji's mad charge.

One of them was Sarutobi. Who let go a ring of smoke from his small pipe, contemplating the blonde genin actions. The blond boy was indeed the number one ninja in Konoha at surprising people.

Meanwhile, Neji revealed his bitterness for everyone to see. "Why do ever the other jounins jump in…?" And added sarcastically "Oh, more especial treatment for the main family…"

Gai shook his head sadly, and berated his student. "Neji, give it a rest. You gave me a warm promise not to lose your head over this main family stuff."

Neji seemed to calm instantly at that. But not everybody in the room regained their cool. One pissed Naruto was still running towards Hinata, holding the cream she gave him in his hands. Hinata collapsed even before Naruto could reach her, and she started coughing good amounts of blood. Naruto only reached her in time to help her lie down, with the help of the concerned Lee, who managed to reach her faster than Naruto himself.

Naruto was still looking at the unmoving Hinata, when Neji requested his attention "Hey…The loser over there."

Naruto briefly toyed with the idea of ignoring the guy; he had always prided himself with being able to ignore those remarks. But the derogatory comments still affected him somewhat. After all, one of his dreams was to be acknowledged to everybody. Naruto Glared at the pale eyed boy.

"If you're a shinobi, then cut out the pathetic cheering off others. And one more… In the end, a loser is a loser, they cannot change!"

If' Naruto's glares could burn, Neji would be a smoking piece of charcoal.

Naruto desperately wanted to kick Neji's ass, but he wasn't stupid. What he saw in the match spoke for itself. Right now, if he fought Neji, he would struggle to beat him at the skill level he displayed. Adding the fact that Neji had been obviously holding back was also a good reason to be cautious. But Naruto wasn't one to shy from a challenge, and those remarks about losers were a challenge in itself.

Naruto was fingering his weapon pouch, pondering about the wisdom of attacking the confident Hyuuga, when a bandaged hand rested in his shoulder. It was Rock Lee.

"Naruto, I understand your feelings so much that it hurts. But the fighting should occur in the matches. Whether a loser could defeat an elite through the power of hard work. That's something to look forward in the main test. Though I hope I will be his opponent. But even if it's you, Naruto, there would be no hard feelings."

Naruto looked at Lee and nodded. He was not the only one who wanted to teach that guy a lesson.

Lee smiled and made a "nice guy pose", a pose his sensei returned. A tense silence filled the room. A silence that ended suddenly with the strained coughs that came from Hinata. Blood filled coughs.

Kurenai quickly assessed Hinata's situation, and what she found must have been pretty big, because she glared at Neji, Who politely pointed that she should spend her time taking care of Hinata instead of glaring at him.

To Naruto, It was only a confirmation of what he suspected. Hinata was hurt badly. If a jounin lost its cool, it had to be pretty serious. His assumption was only confirmed, when the red eyed jounin quickly yelled for the medical team to hurry.

And then the bombshell dropped. One of the medics yelled the piece of horrible news. "At this rate, she won't last 10 minutes! Take her to the emergency medical room, quickly!" The medical team quickly grabbed Hinata in a stretcher, and exited the complex with her in a hurry.

Naruto's eyes shot open while trying to digest the news of Hinata's current predicament. The pale eyed guy tried to kill her, tried to kill family, tried to kill someone who was giving her all in a fight despite the overwhelming odds. And he nearly succeeded. Something unknown inside Naruto snapped. A hint of red tinted Naruto's blue eyes, but quickly disappeared before anybody could notice. Hinata didn't deserve that. No one deserved that. He was going to kick Neji's ass for Hinata's sake.

Naruto moved to the spot Hinata was resting a moment ago, and his fingers grasped the still warm pool of blood. Naruto's fist closed, and he slowly lifted it while glaring at Neji... He sealed in blood his inner promise to Hinata. "YOU ARE GOING DOWN"

Neji Let known everybody in the room what he thought about Naruto's statement with a sarcastic "bah"

**-XXX-**

Kankurou of the sand was a little amused by Naruto's antics. The Hyuuga boy that had just fought was the strongest the sand trio encountered in the chuunin exam, and as far Kankurou was concerned, the blonde boy was no match for him. Granted, he showed some good tactics during his match, but the skill gap was there. The Hyuuga boy was lighting fast and he had been holding back in his fight.

Kankurou's good mood evaporated fairly fast when he glanced at his younger brother. He knew THAT expression. The blood from the match excited him.

Kankurou lazily observed Neji while he was climbing the stairs. The boy was obviously unharmed and he had been holding back. Maybe he could get a bit of information on him? It was always a good idea to have a plan ready. The fact that he would leave the presence of his excited brother was just a bonus.

Having made his mind, he approached his target. He would probably be the most talkative, judging for his display a few moments ago. Kankurou waited to talk with the blonde boy until after Naruto gave a small container of healing cream to the red eyed jounin and asked her to give it to Hinata. The red eyed jounin nodded and took it. Kankurou smiled to himself. He guessed it was the gesture that was important. The girl right now would be under the care of a real team of medics. A mere healing salve wouldn't make any difference. 'Nice guy. I like him'. Kankurou decided.

Kankurou broke the ice with a cheerful statement. "You're a funny guy… I like you."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. Was that an insult? A smart retort came to his mind, but antagonizing possible enemies in a chuunin exam wouldn't be a good idea... Naruto settled for scratching his head, adopting his clueless persona and thanking the face painted puppeteer. "Gee, thank you…"

Kankurou hesitated a moment, and decided to go directly to the heart of the matter. "Oh.. Is about to that Neji guy, but…"

Naruto anger flared momentarily at the mention of that name, and quickly understood what that the puppeteer wanted information about Neji. Naruto would have gladly given all of the pale eyed bastard secrets if he did know them. But Naruto had practically no idea about him, except what had Kakashi said during the match. But as far as he knew, that was common knowledge around Konoha, so he couldn't give the guy anything substantial. He told Kankurou the truth. "I don't know much about him… "

Naruto's words were cut by the examiner, who announced that the next match would begin shortly.

After a loud yell of relief from the bulky Akimichi, Everyone in the room was fixated in the words that appeared in the electronic panel.

**Gaara Vs. Rock Lee.**

**END CHAPTER**

**AUTHOR NOTES: **Okay, this is getting ridiculous. I though that at this chapter I would have finished the preliminary and moved on into really original stuff, but I guess we have to suffer for another chapter of it.

To the guy who said that Kiba was out of character for not using his dog. Read the manga. Really. Kiba did do that.

To everyone else, thank you.

This chapter had been delayed for several factors, including writer's block and my loss of interest in the Naruto's manga recent events, starting from Kakashi having the Mangekyou, and ending with Sai…


	13. Preliminary V

**FROG MASK**

_CHAPTER XIII: _

By Blackmamuth

"**Kyuubi speaking"**

"_When I was growing up in the village of the sand, Parents used to tell histories to little children to scare them. Most of them were like "If you don't eat the pudding, Gaara will come and eat you". That shows nicely how stupid people could be. Even today, I can't understand why they did that. Why would they want to antagonize a demon host that could kill them in mere seconds?"-Kankurou of the sand_

**-XXX-**

Kankurou smirked observing the blond boy that had all his attention on the match. Kankurou didn't need to watch his brother fighting. No matter how strong the bowl headed boy was; Gaara had no rival. Kankurou was sure of it. He cheerfully told the blonde boy so.

The blond boy stated that the weird kid was strong. To Kankurou it didn't really matter. Even some jounins back home in the sand were scared of Gaara, so there was no reason to be concerned for Gaara facing some guy with a fashion problem. The fashionally challenged boy was a Genin after all.

The referee announced the start of the match and immediately Lee ran towards his opponent and launched his attack, a kick towards the immobile Gaara midsection. Even before the kick connected, a torrent of sand surged from the gourd from Gaara's back and blocked the powerful the kick. In the process, Gaara didn't move a single muscle. It was like the sand came alive suddenly, withouth Gaara doing anything, Protecting automatically Gaara from harm.

**-XXX-**

"**SHUKAKU!**" The Kyuubi suddenly screamed startling Naruto so bad that he found himself jumping in the air and reaching for his kunai pouch, while looking around frenetically.

'Damnit FOX! Don't do that!' Naruto swore hastily in his head, trying not to look like an idiot while doing so. An attempt that failed thanks to his leap a few seconds ago. Right now, he had the attention of everyone around him. Luckily his strange behaviour was hastily overlooked thanks to a close call Lee had with Gaara's sand. If Lee had been a millisecond slower, he would have been caught by Gaara's sand. Naruto didn't know the consequences of being caught into that sand, but he assumed it wouldn't be very pleasant.

Naruto redirected his gaze to the match, seemingly observing it, but in reality, he was demanding answers from the Kyuubi, who was very close mouthed, overflowing with obvious irritation. She was refusing to relinquish information, not even acknowledging his questions. Naruto couldn't really read the demon emotions, But it was obvious to him that the demon knew that Shukaku guy, whoever he was.

Kiiro was more helpful, although he knew very little about that "Shukaku" character. Apparently, there was some ancient legend in the sand country, Speaking of "Shukaku, The abomination of the desert", A mythological beast that roamed the desolate wastelands of the wind country, the rumoured cause of disappearance of people and shinobi alike, whole villages were believed destroyed by it's mighty powers.

The Kyuubi let escape a short chuckle at the mention of "mighty powers". She seemed to add some derisive comment after that, but it was so faint that not even Naruto keen hearing managed to pick it.

-XXX-

Naruto was still gaping at the terrible skill displayed in the fight. If he thought that Lee was strong, now he knew better, Lee battle prowess was incredible. He had a degree of skill he could not have even imagined. And Gaara, was even more scarier. The boy had a weird connection with his sand, that somehow seemed to obey his will. Naruto would bet a week supply of ramen that it was related to that "Shukaku" character that the Kyuubi mentioned.

He was trying to devise a way to defeat the two genins if he was in a hypothetical fight with them. Naruto, unlike the previous fights, had not being questioned about possible tactics. Instead, he started on it in his own; He found the challenge stimulating.

And it really was a challenge; he was finding huge flaws in every path of action he was devising. The undeniable fact was that he wasn't fast enough to deal with either of them, and his only means of attack were close quarters combat jutsus. Overwhelming your enemy with _Kage bunshin_ would only delay the inevitable.

The only tactics he managed to come with, had minimal chances of success, but were the only ones he had. Naruto knew very well that even successful, he still had huge probabilities of losing, but he was Uzumaki Naruto, and he wouldn't go down without a fight.

For Lee, the only viable tactic he devised, was a way to negate his superior speed. The idea was to make a swarm of _Kage bunshins_, and have them transform into a spike weapon he recalled Iruka talking about in class.

The use of said weapon was simple, the weapon consisted with five metal spikes, shaped like a three dimensional star. The workings were very easy to understand. You toss them into the ground in enough quantity, and you and your opponent have to tread very carefully in order to avoid and not land in them, (Some shinobi even had them poisoned, or modified with explosive tags), It was a double edged weapon, Since it handicapped both fighters; but since the spike would be Naruto's clones transformed, they could easily dispel by themselves if Naruto was going to step into them. It would consume huge amounts of Chakra, but the clones could regain their true form at crucial moments, and surprise the spandex clad Genin.

That way, Naruto would partially negate the massive speed advantage Lee had over him, but that alone wouldn't be enough to secure the win. Naruto revised again and again his jutsu repertoire, And any possible combinations he could do with weapons, exploding tags and the like, and the result was pretty much zero. He only found to possible ways to at least extract a minimal victory with Lee. The _Sexy no Jutsu_ had practically zero possibilities of working, but it could help him in a crucial moment, or go with the kamikaze way, trying a massive exploding tags route. If he covered his _Kage Bunshins_ with exploding tags and ordered them to embrace Lee, The mix of the pure chakra from the clones and the exploding tags, could potentially make such explosions huge! His partially demonic healing factor would most likely allow him to endure the massive explosions; And since the best techniques Lee had seemed to harm him in the process… the most probable outcome was that he was the most likely candidate to be the only one standing at the end of the match after such onslaught…

Naruto shook his head, dismissing his dark thoughts. He would not seek permanent damage, nor would try such a dangerous and potentially self mutilating route in a mere exam. There were exams every six month, damnit! He was going to become a chuunin sooner or later, it was only matter of time, like his eventual rise to the position of Hokage. There was no need to use desperate tactics in a mere exam, although he filed the idea for a last desperate effort. Someday, it could come in handy.

Gaara, in the other way, was even harder to devise a strategy for. The boy had no openings he could see, and he practically was immobile in the battlefield, which only left heavy assault. But he had not the Jutsus, nor the firepower to bypass the genin defences, Nor Lee taijutsu prowess. And he doubted the possibility of surrounding him to use the ancient but effective method of throwing Kunai wrapped with explosive tags, nor would the theory of _explosive clones_ do much damage into Gaara barrier of sand. As the battle was showing, one had to be insanely fast to dodge his sand. And Naruto was in the slow side.

-XXX-

Meanwhile the battle continued, eventually Lee released his weights, to the supreme surprise of everyone watching, Naruto included. But even that wasn't enough. Gaara's powerful sand shield and armor managed to soak the earth shattering blows of his opponent, and still come on top.

Lee then, released his trumph card. He opened five gates of the forbidden technique of the "_eight celestial gates_", And proceeded to pummel his rival with a powerful "_Inverse Lotus_". A high powered revision of the Jutsu he used with Sasuke before the written exam of the Chuunin exam. Naruto took extreme attention of the boasting of Lee's sensei. Information on the workings of a such powerful technique could really come in handy.

The attempt wasn't successful. After the extremely powerful attack, the finishing blow of Lee's combo was an extremely powerful blow in the air, sending the red haired boy with obscene speeds towards the ground. Adding the power of Gravity to the terrible damage Lee had just unleashed. But Lee wasn't the only one to have a trump card. It turned that Gaara's gourd, was in reality compressed Sand, and he used it to cushion, the earth shattering impact with the ground. Oh, it still hurt Gaara, but nowhere near the disabling levels should it have.

Naruto didn't even detect most of what happened in detail, it was going to fast for him to see much; but he pieced together the events thanks to the fact that the gourd disappeared and the amazed Jounin comments.

A downed Gaara seemed really annoyed at Lee and extended his hand from his position in the ground, commanding his sand to envelop the obviously physically drained Genin. Lee saw the threat and even after suffering the terrible after-effects of his technique, managed to partially evade the attack at the last possible moment. But not without a price, the dangerous "_desert coffin_" managed to snatch his arm and leg; Gaara commanded his sand to brutally tighten around Lee's extremities; the pressure of the sand crushed the weakened Genin limbs. Lee let escape an earth shattering scream due to the extreme pain of having his arm and leg crushed; a scream that made cringe several people in the room. It wasn't enough for Gaara, he immediately commanded his sand to envelop and finish permanently the now unconscious Genin.

But unluckily for him; he ran out of time, and Maito Gai, Rock Lee Jounin sensei, entered the ring, and scattered the sand that was threatening Rock Lee life.

-XXX-

Gaara of the sand froze at Maito Gai actions, like some of his universal truths just got shattered. Why was the Jounin interfering? Somehow, the strange Jounin behaviour triggered mother's rage, Mother did not like to lose her delicious blood.

Gaara asked why, Why the Jounin interfered into a fight that was not over? And the answer the Jounin gave was that mother's latest meal was a beloved comrade. Hah, Fool! Gaara knew better. He ignored the misguided Jounin, regained his sand, while the referee was declaring him the winner, as it should be.

-XXX-

Naruto stared in awe at Lee's willpower and drive to prove his ninja way that even he stood up with a crushed leg and arm while being unconscious. Naruto could only find this behaviour worthy of respect, but also, A small voice told him that it was a bit counterproductive to stand up with those injuries in a mere exam. Nonetheless, Naruto found himself envying his spirit.

Sakura saw the state Lee was, and she was in process of jumping down to the battlefield, when Kakashi stopped her, arguing that it would made the defeat more painful to Lee. Sakura doubted for a few moments, and accepted her sensei words remaining on the balcony.

Naruto watched as Lee Jounin sensei gently lowered his unconscious form to the ground, and requested a medic team. Naruto tightened his grip at the balcony, to a degree that it was physically painful. Lee had beaten him and Sasuke, he had protected them and Sakura when Naruto was unable to do so, and now was completely beaten in the ground. To Naruto, a shinobi that helped him protect precious people, was someone worthy of respect, and he

Naruto jumped at the ground, looking sideways at the victor of the match, Gaara of the sand, who was standing there, looking silently at the attentions Gai was giving his student.

Naruto did not like the state Rock Lee body, But he really couldn't do very much about it. Naruto only could observe how the three medics nin started to examine rock Lee injuries, Whose expressions were progressively getting worse; as if they were seeing things they did not like. Altough, they were calm about it, unlike their expression after seeing Hinata, so Naruto could only guess that Lee life wasn't in danger.

One of the medic Nins asked Gai to come a little far from Naruto, and started talking to him in a lowered voice, clearly intending for what he was going to say to remain secret; unfortunately for him; Uzumaki Naruto was relatively near, and he had the unique advantage of an enhanced hearing thanks to his constant exposure to the Kyuubi chakra.

"It's difficult to have to say something like this; but… " The medic nin started to tell Gai. "…He is breathing properly but… he has shattered bones and muscles through his body… We could so something about that if it was his only problem but… " The medic nin seemed to not to want to continue, seeing the worried expression of the Jounin, but it was his duty, and hiding the truth would be more painful on the long run. The medic nin swallowed, and delivered the bad news.

"The damage to his left arm and leg where he was attacked is grave… With his body in that state; he will never be able to live as a shinobi."

Naruto froze at that statement. It wasn't fair! Lee did so much to reach that state, overcoming many obstacles to reach his dream, and all for Nothing! Naruto Cursed. Lee wanted to fight Neji, Sasuke… And now he wouldn't be able to. Naruto looked silently as the medic nins retired Lee from the battlefield, a contrite jounin following him, his head bowed in shame.

Naruto wanted to scream, to curse, to shout to the air the unfairness of it all, but Kakashi put his hand in his shoulder, in silent understanding.

Naruto didn't even look to kakashi, instead, in a soft voice asked. "Sensei… Can you do anything for him? He wanted to fight Neji, Sasuke.."

Kakashi silenlt pondered what to say to Naruto. The boy was looking at the shinobi way of life with obviously rose coloured glasses, never being hit with the tragedy that sooner or later would befell every one of them. But Kakashi felt it was still too early for Naruto to learn that lesson. Instead, he opted for another answer.

"To fulfil your silent promise you all made to each other, He put his life at risk, So that he could reach that final stage so he could fight all of you"

Kakashi ruffled Naruto hair. "Don't forget that."

-XXX-

The preliminary was finally over after the short match between Chouji and Dosu, where the last had been victorious.

After a short rest, the referee asked everyone that qualified for the last test to go down, and to hear the explanation for the last test. Uzumaki Naruto, Nara Shikamaru, Hyuuga Neji, Temari, Kankurou, Gaara, Dosu Kinuta (The sound guy with the weird arm-instrument) and Aburame Shino were the genins who were going to participate on the main test.

The old man Hokage slowly puffed from his pipe, and proceeded to present the Genins with the details of the still unknown main test. But before that, he stressed about the importance of showing out everyone strengths; because, the main test would be held in front of a huge audience. And it would inpact on their village reputation.

Sarutobi paused, and added the surprising fact that the event would take place in a month time. That titbit of information made some of the Genins curious for its motive, and Sarutobi proceeded to explain for the reasons of the delay.

The third Hokage argued that it was to give time to organize the event, to give time to rest for the injured Genins, and especially, to plan their next moves after what their learned from their enemies in the chuunin exam.

That last comment made the Genins glance discreetly at each other, evaluating their chances.

The Hokage also added that some of them showed everything they could do, so it could also be a time of improvement, or resting if one so desired. Of course, Naruto, after seeing his opponents would not do such a thing. (And even if he hadn't he wouldn't rest until he was Hokage, and maybe not even after that)

The Hokage puffed his pipe, making the assembled Genins very impatient, After a few seconds of silence he added there still was a small matter left until they could be dismissed. Sarutobi asked every Genin to pick a number from a box Anko was holding.

The Genins passed one after another, and grabbed a folded paper, with a number inside. Naruto, couldn't wait for the order to open it, and he opened without prompting, He got number 1.

Every Genin gave their number to the waiting Sarutobi, And then, the third Hokage of Konoha, announced the bombshell. The main event was going to be a tournament, and the numbers they got would determine their opponent and order of fighting.

Naruto looked at the drawing Ibiki showed depicting the pairings for the tournament, and he couldn't hide a sadistic smirk. He got Neji. Great! That way, there wouldn't be any possibility that anyone would kick his stuck up ass before him. He was already looking forward to beat him after what he did to Hinata!

Next, he would fight the winner between the Sasuke-Gaara match. And after he won that, there was the match for the title.

Naruto was starting to look at the possible ways to deal with his opponents when Shikamaru raised his hand, and asked if the fact that the main event was a tournament, that it only would be a chuunin at the end of the day, A question that was answered that it not was winning matches that counted, instead, what was important was the Judges, consited of some feudal Lords, the Kazekage, Sarutobi himself, and a committee of veteran shinobi.

He cheerfully added to Temari question about if it was possible that everyone would become a chuunin, that it was also possible that nobody would become a chuunin. But of course, it was likely that the more matches you advance, more chances that you had to impress the Judges.

After that, Sarutobi dismissed the assembled Genins, who slowly, left the tower in the middle of the forest of death.

Naruto had a thoughtful expression for the entire journey. He had a month to prepare for the last part of the chuunin exam.


	14. Chapter 14

_**Author NOTES**_: I must regretfully say that this history is certainly dead. Recent and not so recent happenings in the manga made me lose gradually my interest, (Sasuke megapowerup, Naruto's rectal treatment with the nerf bat…)

Also, I forced myself to write parts of it, but then, I realized it wasn't fun anymore, and it started to feel like a chore.

The last straw was the revelation of Naruto's parentage. Making my history completely AU. And to be truthful, I wasn't really happy with the whole clichéd concept of having the fourth sealed inside too, and I realized that I had written myself into a corner with recent revelations.

Therefore, I finally decided to release all that I had written of the last chapter and declare the history dead.

Not that I've completely abandoned Naruto Fandom. I have a couple of ideas that deserve to be put on virtual paper.

Heh, who knows, Maybe I'll write the dbz fic I had planned for years.

So here you go, all that I have written of the last chapter. Not proofread, and definitely an unfinished chapter.

**FROG MASK**

_CHAPTER XIV: _

By Blackmamuth

"**Kyuubi speaking"**

"_A Hokage is a title you receive when you understand the principles of morality, knowledge, loyalty, getting along with family, and more importantly; the individual must known and be able to use more than 1000 techniques..." –Ebisu _

"_There is no shortcut to become hokage." –Uzumaki Naruto_

A shinobi group was leaving the tower where the chuunin preliminaries took place, most of them glancing subtly at their future rival. The procession was silent and was advancing through the forest at a reduced pace by shinobi standards. ANBU were unnaturally noticeable in flanking the group, and the chuunin hopefuls were walking in the middle, after the sandaime Hokage, who was chattering with some of the chuunin proctors of the exam. The genin were mostly traveling with their team-mates, and leaving a respectable distance to the next group. (Or at least, with the team-mates that were able to walk after the preliminaries. A good portion of the participants were evacuated by another route by medical nin to receive urgent medical care.)

Naruto hands were inside his pockets, fingering absently a rusty shuriken, playing absently with the hole in the center. In front of Naruto was the rest of team 7, Or to be more exact Sakura. Kakashi left a while ago to the hospital to check over Sasuke. That left Sakura as the only member of his team present. However, it was like she wasn't there, because she was walking like a zombie, not even acknowledged Naruto.

Even when he had assured her the "bastard" would be alright. Her answer was only a grunt in acknowledgement, and then silence. She was walking mechanically, while staring ahead without seeing anything. Even Naruto's obliviousness was unable to overlook her worried estate and Zombie-like behaviour. (Obviously, she was looking ahead to visit Sasuke. That was a given).

Sakura's mood, however unusual; was not the reason for Naruto's contemplative mood. In fact; Naruto, after seeing the preliminaries was very aware of his chances of beating most of the participants: Nearly none. Indeed, that revelation did not go very well with the blond who was planning to be the best Hokage ever. He would not lose the Chuunin exams; Period.

But even Naruto's delusions and grand objectives, weren't enough to blind him from the truth. With his current abilities; he would be very lucky to even reach the final. Therefore; Naruto needed intensive training badly, at the very least to overcome his biggest handicap; at least in Naruto opinion. Naruto had no long range offensive capabilities.

Namely, Naruto could only do real damage in close quarters; his only method of dealing long range damage resided in his meagre weapon skills; skills that were nothing spectacular even for an academy student. (And downright depressing compared to what his future opponent team-mate demonstrated in her fight).

Naruto briefly toyed with asking the girl for a few pointers, but hastily dismissed the idea. She was walking a few meters ahead of him; walking near the Pale-Eyed bastard, broadcasting her bad mood to everyone who had even the tiniest perception ability, most likely for her loss with the sand Kuonichi.

Naruto doubted she would help him, even if she wasn't influenced by his bad reputation. Getting her help was unlikely seeing that his future rival was her team-mate. Even he wouldn't help someone against his team-mates, although Sasuke-bastard had it coming.

Who should he ask for help then?

**-XXX-**

Naruto was not happy.Kakashi had just stated that he had more important things to do;namely training Sasuke-bastard instead of him!!!** "I WANT YOU KAKASHI SENSEI!!!!!!" **Naruto screamed out of frustation to the masked jounin when he presented Ebisu "the closet pervert" as his teacher; claiming that Ebisu was even better teacher than him. Why was he teaching Konohamaru then, instead of taking a Genin team?

"Why the hell does my training teacher have to be him!!!?" Naruto asked, his volume reaching levels absolutely unheard before in the hospital; not a nice thing to do, but Naruto, in his aggravation didn't even care.

Closet pervert being better trainer than Kakashi? Hah! He beat even before his first Ranked D mission, in his trial of the harem jutsu! And Konohamaru wasn't that impressive, right? Therefore Naruto didn't need the help of a perverted self-important babysitter around; Naruto did need a real teacher.

Naruto changed tactics, he needed someone to learn from; it wasn't like he could sneak and steal some scrolls from the Hokage again!! (And now he was a full fledged Shinobi of the leaf, such an act would be treason. And it would be slightly more difficult to become the next hokage as a traitor.)

Naruto tried to reason with Kakashi. Maybe this way he could train him, or at least take him along with Sasuke.

"Kakashi Sensei; this guy is weaker tan me in the first place!!! I mean I used my harem no jutsu …MPHHHphh…" Naruto couldn't finish his rant; because his prospective teacher gagged him preventing the exposure of his perverted side.

"I treat you to ramen if you keep quiet about that" Ebisu whispered to Naruto, Who reluctantly nodded.

"I really don't like this, Kakashi-Sensei." Naruto pouted, reluctantly resigning to his fate. The free ramen offer also helped. Maybe the closet pervert wasn't THAT bad of a teacher.

Ebisu looked back at him, smug attitude Naruto hated. "Same goes here, if it weren't for kakashi request, nobody who'd want to train the likes of you?"

Those words touched on a sore point for Naruto, having endured negative upon negative, dismissals upon dismissals, and now, there was the issue of the training. Ghost dad said that before asking him, he should ask Kakashi first, because he was his sensei, Kakashi made a point of telling he wasn't to train him, and now, Mr. Replacement teacher nº 3 didn't want to teach him, only agreed to do a favour to Kakashi!; If he didn't need training that badly, he would tell them to screw it, and go train by himself.

Meanwhile Kakashi managed to calm the situation, only to reignite it again suggesting Naruto to ask Ebisu to relearn the basics. Since he was team seven dead last in those departments. That felt to Naruto like a slap. Naruto could agree on some degree about that statement about his basics. But… to add insult to injury, he said he was the worst in team seven?!? Where was Sasuke now? In a hospital bed being coddled like the endangered species he was!! And Sakura didn't even pass to the finals!!! It was insulting!!! It was degrading! It wasn't TRUE!!! ""COMPARED TO SASUKE AND SAKURA…WHERE ON EARTH DO I COME UP SHORT?!?! Naruto's outburst even surpassed his earlier one, making several nurses nearby deaf for a few seconds.

Wasn't he in the finals? Didn't he pass two thirds of the whole freaking **CHUUNIN** exam? How the hell could be his basics THAT bad? And why the hell he needed to work in the basics right now?!? There were the exam finals in a month time!! How was the basic going to help him in the combat finals?

Naruto just invented and unsuccessfully tested a new jutsu; "glare of death" his intended targets the two perverted jounins in front of him.

Ebisu ranted about his lack of skill in chakra control. While he wasn't happy about the message; Naruto reluctantly agreed that sucked in that area and working on chakra control was a good idea, that way, his endurance and chakra output would go up considerably.

But in Naruto's opinion chakra control although important it wasn't priority nº1; He had limited training time; shitloads of chakra already. And therefore improving his control wasn't THAT critical. Naruto had to spend his available time efficiently.

Right now the immediate objective was passing the rank exams. Therefore being able to last for more hours, have his techniques consume less chakra in a fight and if he was lucky improve his physical skills was important but those improvements would do no good to him if he was out of it in 5 minutes because he had no counter to the Gentle fist of the Hyuuga.

Naruto wanted to improve his firepower instead.

**-XXX-**

If you asked someone who knew well Naruto what was his favourite treat; they would tell you "Ramen". It was less known that if Naruto someday got tired of being a ninja (As if!) could live very well as a ramen chef. Naruto knew everything that one needed to know about Ramen, and a little bit more.

And when speaking of Ramen, Only one word: Ichiraku. Years of experience with Naruto, and his sounds of delight honed the old man skills to near perfection when speaking of noodles. It was such a shame that most customers avoided the stand because of his ever-present customer. Therefore it was highly unusual when Naruto (Or anyone else) didn't enjoy Ichiraku Ramen, the best ramen in Konoha; and all that for a few ryou(1).

And why was Naruto not enjoying his Ramen? It was because he was contemplating how to learn more about his possible rival; In theory, a rather easy task to accomplish; since the Hyuuga was the most well known clan in Konoha unlike some other possible rivals. Information about Hyuuga HAD to be out there to be gathered. But the problem was WHERE.

Naruto had found a few problems in his attempts while gathering info. Ghost dad refused to answer, saying information gathering was an important skill to learn (Naruto would remember that one). Closet pervert just ranted about listening to his methods of training, that way he wouldn't have to bother with the rivals. Hinata was still at the hospital (When he was searching for Kakashi sensei, he took a few minutes to ask a nurse (Who scowled at him when he approached and told him in bland and dry tones that Kiba, Hinata and Lee were "alright" And Sasuke-bastard information was classified).

Naruto didn't really trust the information, especially since his unusual fox-enhanced-hearing allowed him to hear the nurse mumbling "No way would I let the abomination close to patients"

That encounter made Naruto realized the true difficulty of learning more ab1out the Hyuuga. It would be rather hard to gather information when most habitants of Konoha would refuse to even acknowledge his presence as the reaction of the nurse showed him. The likelihood of acquiring false information would be high in most cases.

Therefore Naruto had devised a plan. Nothing really fancy, He created a twenty-four Kage bunshins, and divided between them his entire scroll supply. Naruto didn't really care about those half blank scrolls, and he still had the ones from the chuunin exam. He had to use real scrolls; since he wanted to retain the information his kage bunshin's gathered after they ran out time and disappeared. Naruto grouped the bunshins in groups of three. So if for some reason one of them was dispelled; the rest could still deliver the information to his apartment.

The plan was to have his Kage bunshins teams cover the entirety of Konoha gathering information about the pale eyed bastards. Three of them would be sent to the academy, to ask Iruka sensei about Neji, and after that maybe they could try to enter the hall of records in the academy. Not that entering in there would help him THAT much. Since Naruto doubted sensitive records would be kept in the academy. But maybe it would give him an idea of what to expect.

The second group had a different objective. Spy on the bastard training, and learn anything possible; write it, and relay it back to him. Those would probably be the ones that would give him first hand information; So Naruto gave them two scrolls.

Third group had a slightly harder task. They would try to enter the Hyuuga district, and spy on the rest of the Hyuuga family. Sneaking into places wasn't Naruto's strong point, but one didn't lose anything for trying.

Fourth group would go ask freaky-eyebrows and mini-eyebrows. Mini eyebrows seemed nice enough when he jumped with him in the arena when that Tenten girl got beaten by the sand kuonichi. Perhaps he would help.

Fifth group would ask Kiba and Hinata's sensei. Naruto hoped they weren't angry about his victory over mutt-butt.

Sixth group would go around the village asking random villagers, who knew, maybe they would be lucky.

Seven group was going to met the Hokage, and ask (meaning grovel) a few pointers and maybe a few jutsus out of him. Who knew, Even if the old geezer didn't tell his clones anything about his next rival, maybe the old man would give his clones a jutsu scroll instead. The old man had a lot of them, he was Hokage, and so he knew more than 1000 jutsu, right?

(1) Naruto world Currency; at least in Fire country.

-XXX-

Ebisu had five reasons to hate Kyuubi. Those reasons were in the memorial stone written one under the other.

But before all Ebisu was a professional. Ebisu breathed discipline, followed rules and regulations to the letter. He was a closet pervert too, but that was of no importance to the current situation.

Ebisu also had pride in his skills as a shinobi and took his duties seriously. If the village gave him a mission, he would do everything in his power to fulfil it as perfectly as possible. No matter his personal feelings.

Not that he had to like it. The day the third Hokage asked him to be the sensei/babysitter of his gradson…

Ebisu had a debt of gratitude to Uzumaki for that one. Konohamaru attitude changed for the better after his little escapade with Uzumaki, and the consequences in the youngest of the Sarutobi skills, made Ebisu contemplate his own actions.

He was shocked to the core. Ebisu knew he was prideful, but he never really believed his feelings of superiority interfered with his job as a jounin sensei.

He really didn't teach that much to Konohamaru, apart from book learning and theory, deeming the boy to small and his chakra system too underdeveloped to tackle any chakra manipulation. He had not bothered to check. He couldn't be more wrong; a little afternoon Konohamaru spent with Uzumaki the third grandson learned henge no jutsu!!. The brat knew one of the three basic ninja techniques even before entering the academy. And his new attitude in his studies…

Ebisu really owed one to Naruto.

Before Ebisu arrived to the tower, Kakashi was already there Hokage tower trying to post a C rank mission request for a Jounin to teach Naruto and inform of the massacre of an ANBU team that protected the Uchiha. Let's say the chuunin administrators weren't much happy about the news and one of them even sympathized about the Cyclops not wanting to teach the loudmouth.

It was mere luck that Ebisu picked that moment to enter the tower. He was waiting for the Hokage to return so he could report the most recent happenings with Konohamaru training.

The Cyclops recognized him instantly, and requested his help with the blond boy. There was no way he would refuse, since he owed his life to the chronically late jounin.

They had a considerable discussion when Ebisu asked the masked man about Naruto's current talent and skills. And the Cyclops dismissed his concerns saying Naruto current skill set was so much below the Hyuuga and therefore the month would be better spent relearning the basics. Also claiming he had no time for a thorough debriefing since the Uchiha wasn't currently guarded. Kakashi asked him to come to the hospital, with him, where he expected to find his student waiting.

Ebisu didn't doubt Naruto needed remedial classes in the basics, but he was rather annoyed at the aloof dismissal of the genin skills. Especially since said genin managed to knock him out in one occasion.

That irked him.

Ebisu questioned why the Hatake wasn't the one to train the boy, and Kakashi's reasoning was that only one person (Namely Kakashi himself) was capable of training Sasuke in the use of his bloodline. And the desperate need of training was because the Uchiha opponent was a demon host.

Ebisu raised an eyebrow at that. It was an exam and even if the opponent was Uchiha Itachi himself **SHUDDER **the shinobi were allowed to resign. (There was no shame in doing so.)But no self respecting sensei would pawn his student to another teacher and instruct him to work in the basics, because the exam was a lost cause. Especially since he was planning an emergency full time training schedule for his prized pupil; whose match was also a lost cause? The jounin SHOULD divide his time between his students, not train one, and pawn the other two to other jounins.

The teacher in him got really offended.

Well, the actual meeting with the brat hadn't gotten really well, especially because Naruto nearly told the entire hospital about his isolated and completely understandable incident with _Harem no Jutsu_.

Quick thinking allowed preventing the revelation of his habits to the entire hospital.

**-XXX-**

Ebisu treated Naruto to Ramen, but the boy was surprisingly silent, playing with his ramen without eating it. Ebisu thought the boy was still dwelling in the negative of his sensei in teaching him, but the real reason surprised him.

The boy had just asked him about the Hyuuga, and his weaknesses. Ebisu had never faced in battle a Hyuuga, and his knowledge of their abilities came only from his time spent in missions with members of the prestigious family.

Therefore Ebisu had never dwelled in possible flaws in the Hyuuga's gentle fist and never bothered to research its workings. Not that if he did he would tell Naruto, Hyuuga were allies, and it was an exam open to the public after all. He was loyal enough to Konoha to not broadcast exploitable quirks of "the most powerful clan of the leaf" where everyone could see.

That and also he wanted the brat to think in a grander scale. Because if everything worked as he planned, Naruto would beat Hyuuga Neji, Kakashi would have to eat his words back, acknowledge him as a great teacher; And Naruto would then have to face Gaara of the sand.

If Kakashi reaction was accurate, the "genius" Uchiha had a snowball chance in

Hell of beating the suna shinobi.

Ebisu merely raised an eyebrow and refused to comment when Naruto made an impressive amount of Kage bunshins and instructed them to get information. A good strategy but Ebisu would rather be caught dead than admit it to the blond genin.

Ebisu liked challenges. Ebisu didn't particularly show his enjoyment he took in teaching (Girls didn't like teachers; Girls liked cool looking mysterious ninja!!!). Ebisu was an elite tutor. Not something girls liked very much…

'Wait, wait… Wrong train of thought… first business, pleasure later…' In a supreme effort, Ebisu's perverted mind left the gutter alone and instead focused in his most recent pupil.

Therefore, the first obstacle to overcome was to minimally polish his student chakra control. Perhaps show a promise of a jutsu, to have him work on the exercise with enthusiasm, and after he mastered it, Ebisu would test the boy for his elemental affinity, and if he was lucky, he had the perfect technique to teach him.

-XXX-


End file.
